The Sabah Saga

As a young Malaysian, I deemed it my duty to go back home to vote for the general election (GE14), considering I missed the last one when I was studying. So I scrapped up the leftovers of my lunch money and purchased a cheap flight ticket for Kota Kinabalu (thank you Tony Fernandes). I went back home and sat around for a few days, waiting for the election to begin.

On the day of the election I woke up at 6am and prepared myself to vote at my voting center. I was hopeful that May 9th will be the day that Sabah will not continue to be an easy meal for any single party, but be a slog for each and every participant to win their seats fair and square. The wish certainly came true, but in a way that is highly unexpected. I voted and was done by 8.30am. Fingers crossed my vote wasn't a spoiled vote.

I accompanied my parents to the voting center in Keningau for them to fulfill their duties and we went back home and waited.

And waited.

I turned on the TV by 7pm and sat there waiting for the results. I also have my WhatsApp turned on for the latest "news" from reputable "sources".

By 12pm we have barely any official news other than the ones from Sarawak. Nothing is confirmed and rumors of multiple recounts are starting to surface. Soon, I start getting information about BN (Barisan Nasional) losing. These rumors came when the TV still has barely any of the results showing for the parliamentary seats. My goodness the wait. Karim Raslan sums up my feeling towards the SPR aptly. REKT

There were other rumors of Officials unwilling to sign the counts for the votes. This was particularly terrible in Sabah, where close to no result was released until 3am. Pakatan Harapan (PH) has majority in the parliament seats by the time I went to sleep, and Sabah's results was still not fully out by that time amidst the celebration for the change of federal government.

May 10th was filled with even more suspense. Mahathir's swearing in as Prime Minister was delayed the whole day, while the Sabah state assembly was stuck at 29 BN, 29 PH, and 2 STAR. Both STAR members decides to ally with BN, effectively forming a simple majority for the state assembly and thus winning BN the important portfolios within the Sabah government.

Just a quick disclaimer: I try to write as neutral as possible since I want to remain unbiased. That being said, my circle is made up of mostly opposition supporting people, so my perspective will be fairly limited from the other side.

Frog: Katak in Bahasa Malaysia, it kinda takes the meaning of someone who jumps political parties/affiliations.

One would think that the story will end by the time a BN member was sworn in as a Chief Minister (of the state). But lo and behold, the fire rises. The frog memes were circulating at full force. Forwarded texts are claiming that candidates of STAR took RM20 million as payment to join BN, and the financial situation of one of the candidates is not helping indicating otherwise either. Insults are getting hurled at a rate faster than Muhammad Ali can throw punches in the Facebook comments sections (great source of entertainment by the way). Nah, that's not true, nothing is faster than Muhammad Ali's punches.

Circulating deep in the latest spams in WhatsApp were news that some of the BN members belonging to UPKO are looking to jump to PH, and their numbers weren't small. 5 to be exact. But isn't the minister getting sworn in soon and there ain't no time to switch sides no more? But the numbers were surely enough to turn the tide since it will send the simple majority back to PH's side. There were truly a lot of frogs, and not limited to Sabah only it seems.

So we waited for the UPKO candidates to jump, but it never happened. And Musa Aman was sworn in as a chief minister. Was the drama over? nope

The next day, it was finally announced that the UPKO members were going to jump, but how was it going to work I question. It was truly frog mania. They officially announce that Shafie Apdal (from Pakatan Harapan) was going to be sworn in to be our Chief Minister later in the day on the 11th, but that made no sense since we already have a chief minister. Unless one can fire a chief minister the same week he was sworn in, I do not see how this will happen.

And so came the 12th, less eventful for sure, but no less interesting. Shafie Apdal was sworn in as a Chief Minister. So we now have 2 Chiefs. And so our doubts are confronted with more doubts. How will this state even work? Judging from the fact that there were 2 swearing in ceremonies, I can simply assume that the latest swear-in will take precedence, but is this in any way.. correct? I am not so sure.

Will we subject ourselves to more tyranny because some refuse to acquire what they want in the correct manner?
Does 2 wrong make a right?
Is living by principle less important than the results?

We know that BN took a massive hit losing the Parliamentary majority for the first time since the inception of the country and losing it's guaranteed & secure seats in Sabah (or should i say, fixed deposits). It is not a secret that their leaders have caused a massive loss of trust among the Malaysians and those leaders will never be trusted ever again by the people of Malaysia. But is there hope for BN in Sabah and in Malaysia? It will depend on the performance of PH and BN's ability to attract newcomers to join them. It is a good time to rebuild. But it's barely nightfall, dawn will be a long ways away.

Let us hope that the corrupt will be uprooted from where they stand and be judged fairly according to what they deserve. The country's survival and prosperity depends on it.

Is the Sabah saga done yet? We'll see.

*These are all my personal experiences. Accuracy not guaranteed.