CROSS-BORDER alliances between Sabah and Sarawak opposition parties to better push the interests of the two states only looks good on paper, analysts said.

It could be a long wait for the so-called “Borneo Alliance”, said University of Tasmania’s Asian political expert James Chin.

“It may happen (some day) but certainly not for the forthcoming general election, ‘’ Chin told The Malaysian Insight.

“A lot of these state nationalist parties are led by people with very big egos,” Chin said.

These people, he said, could not even work together with parties with the same goals at home, what more with parties across the border.

“We saw that in the last Sarawak state election,” Chin said alluding to Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB), Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) and even the small Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) going their separate ways and yet were talking of having a Borneo alliance in the wake of their electoral mauling at last December’s Sarawak election.

Aspirasi and PBDS had agreed on some kind of electoral arrangement for the state elections but in a crunch, they went their separate ways.

PSB and DAP, despite attempts at talks, ended up fighting each other in the polls.

Chin had earlier said the animosity between PSB president Wong Soon Koh and DAP state chairman Chong Chieng Jen was too deep to bridge.

The failure to mend ties had prompted Wong to look elsewhere.

Late last month Wong said PSB and Sabah’s Parti Warisan “had agreed in principle” to work together to formalise the Borneo alliance.

Similarly, the president of pro-independence Parti Bumi Kenyalang Voon Lee Shan in January announced that PBK is in talks with “a few political parties in Sabah” to form a united Borneo Front to fight for Sarawak and Sabah independence.

He did not say which Sabah parties he is in talks with.

Voon, when asked for an update, said they are “still negotiating”.

“Premature to speak yet. Will tell at (the) appropriate time.”

Chin is not optimistic.

“If they couldn’t come together in the last state elections, there’s no chance they can (agree on something) that cuts across the two states.

Chin said the Borneo alliance idea was nothing new.

“This Borneo alliance has been going around since the 1960s, even before Malaysia was formed,” he said.

He was referring to the proposal for a Borneo federation among the then British colonies of North Borneo (Sabah), Sarawak and Brunei as an alternative to the three Borneo states joining Malaya to form the federation of Malaysia.

One of the proponents of the Federation of Borneo was the Brunei politician A. M. Azahari who later  led the Brunei rebellion of 1962.

“Even after Malaysia was formed, there were still talk of a Borneo bloc between Sabah and Sarawak,” Chin said.

He said the current move for such an alliance was spurred by the rise of state nationalism.

“It’s still an anti-Malaya front.”

Chin said the unlikelihood of a Borneo alliance “tells us about the quality of the leadership of the state-based opposition parties”.

Universiti Malaya political analyst Awang Azman Awang Pawi said a Borneo alliance of opposition parties would have little impact on the national political landscape as the electorate would see them as “fringe voices”.

He said such a link-up would only have an impact the major parties or coalitions are in it.

He said it would be difficult for a party that did not have seats in the state assembly or parliament to push its political agenda in an alliance.

Universiti Malaysia Sabah political analyst Lee Kuok Tiung recently said political parties in Sabah and Sarawak were looking at forming a Borneo alliance to build a stronger lobby for their interests in Putrajaya.

He said there were signs pointing towards such a pact “duplicating the politics in Sarawak”, referring to the ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak led by the undefeated PBB. – April 16, 2022.