Two-party/coalition system shortchanges Sabah, Sarawak

by Joe Fernandez

COMMENT We are being told that May 5 or 505 has re-confirmed that we now definitely have a two-party/coalition system in Malaysia. The 12^th General Election on Sat 8 Mar, 2008, when five states in Malaya and Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory fell to the Opposition Alliance in a political tsunami unprecedented since 1969, was the beginning of the two-party/coalition trend.

The results of the just-concluded 13^th General Election on May 5 saw the Barisan Nasional (BN) taking 48 parliamentary seats in Sabah (23) and Sarawak (25) to add to the 85 it obtained in Malaya. Except for BN’s seats in Sarawak, 14 of its parliamentary seats in Sabah including Labuan were won through the Malaya-based Umno.  

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) collected just 9 parliamentary seats in Sabah (3) and Sarawak (6) to add to the 80 it collected in Malaya. These nine seats were won by Malaya-based political parties, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (2) – Miri in Sarawak and Penampang in Sabah -- and the Democratic Action Party (7) i.e. Sandakan in Sabah and six seats in Sarawak.

The Malaysia Agreement and other constitutional documents on the formation of the 1963 Federation hold that Malaya must not have more than one less than two-thirds of the seats in Parliament. That works out to 147 of the present 222 seats in Parliament. However, Malaya has 165 seats i.e. an additional 18 seats which should have gone to Sabah and Sarawak in the collective.

The situation is worse than this. Twenty three parliamentary seats in Sabah (17) and Sarawak (6) are now being held by Malayan parties. 18 + 23 amounts to a “theft” of 41 seats thanks to the Attorney General, Election Commission and Registrar of Societies looking the other way on the Malaysia Agreement. The voice of the people of Borneo is thereby diminished in the Malaysian Parliament.

Already, Putrajaya has been in non-compliance on the Malaysia Agreement. But that’s another story.

The formation of the Federal Cabinet on Thurs by minority Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak will prove that an Either OR Divide in Parliament is not in the best or long-term interest of the Borneo nations in Malaysia. They are likely to be shortchanged in the number of positions which they can secure from the Najib Administration. There are no prizes for guessing this outcome!

The dangerous precedent set in 2008 offers a guide.

In 2008, when Sabah and Sarawak came to Umno/BN’s rescue in Malaya to form the Federal Government, they were clearly not compensated to the extent they should have been despite delivering 55 parliamentary seats, the exceptions being Kuching in Sarawak and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah. To add insult to injury, the Sabah, Sarawak MPs were pawned of with minor portfolios including in the Prime Minister’s Department as Menteri Jalan Jalan.  

The result was the Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp), already irrelevant in the BN since the re-entry of the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) in the early 2000s, pulled out from the ruling coalition on 17 Sept, 2008 but more to re-invent the party. Sapp then held the Sepanggar and Tawau parliamentary seats, both lost to the BN and Dap respectively on May 5 by huge margins to further underline its irrelevance.

There’s talk that Najib must appoint another Deputy Prime Minister and this time from either Sabah or Sarawak. If such a candidate is not non-Muslim, that will cause uproar among the Orang Asal in particular. Huguan Siou Joseph Pairin Kitingan was mentioned as a possible DPM but he has since been already sworn in as a Deputy Chief Minister in Sabah. He can always resign this post.

In any case, merely having a DPM is meaningless since such a position is not mentioned in the Federal Constitution.

It would be more beneficial if Borneo gets some powerful Ministries like Finance, Works and Education besides the chairmanship of Petronas, the national oil corporation which gets most of its income from Sabah and Sarawak.

The emphasis should be more on Sabah and Sarawak having positions with clout rather than having this or that number of positions. Of course, having both clout and numbers would be better. It’s likely that Sabah and Sarawak would insist on having a fair number of positions in the Federal Government and at the same time demand some heavyweight positions.

The prognosis is not good. Najib, in the wake of 505, was reported as saying that “there will be some people who will expect a bit more because they voted for us. But we will have to do a balancing act”. This appears to be a reference to Umno’s pre-occupation with the Indian and Chinese vote banks in Malaya at the expense of Sabah and Sarawak. The people of Borneo will continue to be taken for granted by Putrajaya.

The reading in Borneo is that the Federal Government and Government positions must reflect the election results. In short, there should be no place for BN losers. However, since BN lost the popular vote, there’s a case for bringing the Opposition into the Federal Cabinet and Government positions without forming a coalition/national unity government or insisting that the Opposition must join the BN to be in Putrajaya.

People in Sabah and Sarawak see no reason why a legislator cannot represent all his or her constituents. In that sense, Najib moaning over the lack of “Chinese representatives” in BN holds no water.

For another, Borneons cannot understand Umno blaming the Chinese for not voting for the MCA and Gerakan, its “running dogs” in BN. Obviously, it’s pointless holding a GE if at the same time, the Chinese are expected to vote only for Chinese parties linked with Umno.

GE 2013, where Umno/BN obtained seven parliamentary seats less in Borneo vis-à-vis 2008, is a clear signal that no one in power in Putrajaya can continue to take Sabah and Sarawak for granted in future and live to tell the tale.

Come the 14^th General Election, Umno/BN’s haul of parliamentary seats in the Borneo nations is likely to shrink even further irrespective of whether it lasts that long in power or falls within the year as predicted by PR strategists.

The BN would have lost another four parliamentary seats in Sabah this time had it not been for the free for all among the Opposition parties in the Territory. PR, Star and Sapp were locked in three-way fights and in some seats with other parties, nuisance factors, which appeared from nowhere to virtually blackmail the main players into paying up.

Patently, a two-party/coalition system is not good for Sabah and Sarawak.

The region needs a three-party/coalition system.

It's better for the 57 parliamentary seats in Sabah including Labuan, and Sarawak to form a neutral 3^rd Force block in Parliament to support a minority Government formed by either BN or PR.

Alternatively, the 57 seats from Sabah, Sarawak can initiate, form and lead the Federal Government with either BN or PR as a partner.

In that case, the 3^rd Force will take the Prime Minister’s post with its Malayan partner in the Federal Government getting the Deputy Prime Minister’s post.

That’s the long-term direction in which Borneo in Malaysia is headed.

At a very minimum, the 3^rd Force from Borneo needs at least 50 parliamentary seats to be in a position to seize the reins of power in Putrajaya.