ANALYSIS The campaign for the Batu Sapi parliamentary by-election is turning into a story of competing “betrayal” theories. They are being flogged by various parties who have entered the fray in a desperate last-minute push to garner support for their respective candidates.
Sabah Umno veteran Karim Ghani, who recently quit his party in a huff over the allegedly continuing disenfranchisement of local Muslims, was first off the mark. He is urging voters in Sekong to reject both Linda Tsen and Yong Teck Lee. Muslim-majority Sekong is one of the two state seats in Batu Sapi, the other being the overwhelmingly Chinese Karamunting.
Tsen, points out Karim, is from Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) which, according to him, “betrayed” the United Sabah National Organisation (Usno) in the 1985 state election. The betrayal, as Karim explains, is the refusal of PBS to form a coalition government with Usno after the former vanquished Berjaya in snap state polls called by Sabah strongman Harris Salleh. Karim swears that PBS and Usno had a pre-election coalition agreement which was not honoured by the former.
Karim also wants voters to reject Tsen because her party PBS is linked with Umno in the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN). Umno, swears Karim who claims to have brought the party to Sabah “to fight PBS”, betrayed Usno members when it subsequently teamed up with PBS in BN.
Yong is on Karim’s blacklist too in Batu Sapi since his Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) is a 1994 breakaway from PBS.
Karim is also sore that Umno had Usno de-registered and has subsequently resisted all attempts to revive the party. Hence, his plan to join PKR along with mostly ex-Usno members who are still to join Umno or who plan to quit the party over the “betrayal”.
It was PBS, says Karim, who betrayed Umno and BN when it pulled out from the ruling coalition on the eve of the general election in 1990.
PBS campaigners point out in rebuttal that it was Yong who persuaded fellow deputy president Bernard Giluk Dompok to stand together with him to persuade party president Joseph Pairin Kitingan to make that fateful pull-out decision.
The younger Kitingan in politics, Jeffrey, objected but was over-ruled by his brother. Yong’s role in the 1990 PBS pull-out from BN gave Umno the excuse it had been waiting for to enter Sabah.
PBS, at the time of the pull-out, claimed it had felt betrayed by Umno which treated the Sabah party as if it didn’t exist in the BN.
Not so subtle message
The not so subtle message from Karim, in any case, is that local Muslims, ex-Usno members whether within or without Umno, should vote for Ansari Abdullah, the PKR candidate from Pakatan Rakyat, the opposition coalition.
Karim is yet to join PKR but hopes to garner at least 1,000 ex-Usno votes for Ansari and negotiate his way into PKR. He has already held two rounds of talks in late August and mid-September with de facto PKR chief Anwar Ibrahim in Kota Kinabalu.
Meanwhile, PBS campaigners in Batu Sapi agree that their party had a coalition agreement with Usno in 1985.
But it appears that the agreement would be activated – Karim denies this as a PBS afterthought – only if PBS needed Usno to form a state government. PBS, however, did not need Usno as the election results proved. Nevertheless, it still contemplated taking in the Muslim-led and dominated party into the state government despite the former (PBS) having a sizeable number of Muslim representatives and over their objections.
Usno apparently incurred PBS’s wrath when Suluk chief Mustapha Harun had himself sworn in as chief minister in the wee hours after election day based on his theory that “the early bird catches the worm”.
Earlier, Mustapha who had 17 seats in 1985 vis-à-vis PBS’ 25 came to an understanding for a coalition government with the vanquished Berjaya which could only manage six seats. The hope of the two parties was to appoint six nominated assemblymen, a little used provision in the state constitution, to eclipse PBS in the state assembly.
After being sworn in, Mustapha, however, invited PBS to join his coalition government.
Karim claims that this invitation was in keeping with the spirit of the coalition government.
Also, he claims that Mustapha only teamed up with Berjaya after PBS indicated that there would be no coalition government. It’s unlikely that between the final election results coming in amidst celebration in PBS and the wee hours of the next day, that Pairin would have called Mustapha to announce “no coalition government”.
Pairin was first waiting to be sworn in the next morning. Mustapha jumped the gun when he virtually scrambled over the walls of the Istana and woke up the governor at an unearthly hour to have himself sworn in as the chief minister.
Backed by then deputy prime minister Musa Hitam, PBS president Joseph Pairin Kitingan was sworn in nevertheless as chief minister, Mustapha’s appointment being considered null and void. Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was then overseas and upon his return, upbraided Musa for Pairin’s appointment.
Mustapha immediately went to court to test his “early bird catches the worm” theory but lost his bid to have himself reinstated as chief minister. The court pointed out that Pairin, with 25 seats, should have been invited first by the state governor to form the government and not Mustapha who had less than a majority in the state assembly of 48 seats.
Under heavy fire
Then there is Yong who is under heavy fire in Batu Sapi from PBS campaigners for defecting from the party on the eve of the 1994 state election and getting SAPP approved within 24 hours in cahoots with Mahathir. Yong subsequently teamed up with Umno in the state election but their combined total of 23 seats including three from Yong fell short of the majority in the 48-seat assembly.
One month later, Yong enlisted the help of Sarawak tycoon Sng Chee Hwa who had earlier flown him in Kuala Lumpur tycoon Vincent Tan’s private jet to see Mahathir and get SAPP registered. Yong also enlisted the help of Labuan tycoon Joseph Ambrose Lee. Both tycoons helped Yong to lure several state assemblypersons away from PBS to bring about the downfall of the Pairin government.
Yong subsequently went on to become chief minister for two years (1996-1998) in a state government which has since been dominated by Umno.
Then on Sept 17, 2008 SAPP pulled out from the ruling BN claiming loss of confidence in the federal leadership and the coalition party. Umno, however, is not flogging this betrayal in Batu Sapi unlike PBS which doesn’t want SAPP back in the Sabah BN.
SAPP refused to join PR in the wake of Sept 17, 2008 election and instead has been holding on-off talks with emissaries of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.
Yong’s plan is to return to Sabah BN provided all the Chinese seats would be allotted to his ostensibly multiracial party. Hence, his outing in Batu Sapi is to demonstrate to the BN that the majority of the Chinese is with him. Alternatively, he hopes to negotiate for lesser terms for re-entry into BN on the grounds that he still has substantial Chinese support.
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