VILLAGERS Lias Risun and Osman Ador told two different stories of the two-year-old Warisan Sabah government and their competing narratives will be the key to who wins the September 26 state polls.

Lias of Kg Karambunai in Sepanggar told how the state government fixed rural roads once ignored by the former Barisan Nasional administration.

But Osman, 70, of Kg Kelian in Tuaran said kampung folk used their own money to repair their roads because local council officers said there were no funds.

Their views represent the two contrasting narratives of the Sabah elections peddled by the two political forces – Warisan Plus and Perikatan Nasional.

Warisan Plus, which comprise the dominant party of the same name, DAP, PKR and Upko, is selling the message that the coalition has done much during its administration and could do more if given the chance.

PN claims the opposite – that Warisan has not delivered change that Sabahans can touch and feel.

Osman and the other fruit and vegetable sellers at the Tamparuli wet market appeared to embody this sentiment, saying that little has changed since Warisan took control of Sabah after the 14th general election.

Warisan, along with the federal-level Pakatan Harapan coalition, won GE14 on the promise to bring change as a Sabah-based political party independent of its PH partners.

“When we asked the district council about repairing the potholes in our village, the officers told us there were no funds,” said Osman as he rearranged bambangan, a local fruit that tastes like mango, at the stall he’s managed since he was 18.

“So, us villagers pooled our funds, bought tar and (bitumen) and set to work patching the holes up ourselves.”

When the Covid-19 pandemic forced a shutdown and hit their incomes, Warisan promised aid to all Sabahans.

“But none came. We only received food from civil society groups and cash from Prihatin,” said Osman, referring to the federal-level RM1,600 cash transfer from the Bantuan Prihatin package.

Lina Sanudin, who manages the neighbouring stall selling vegetables, said in the past two years, the local council installed ceiling and light bulbs in two-decade-old market.

“But the lights are dim and only half of them work while the fans are small and don’t reach everyone,” said the 46-year-old, pointing to the scores of light bulbs weakly twinkling in the market’s dark high ceiling.

Joniston Bangkuai, a lawmaker of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), said the spotty distribution of Covid-19 aid and the lack of new development is characteristic of the Warisan administration.

This is despite Warisan’s oft-repeated claim of being able to govern Sabah better than BN, which it said was controlled by its peninsula political masters.

“There are also numerous U-turns such as the promise to cancel the Kaidun dam, the Tg Aru resort project and appointing politicians to lead government-linked companies,“ said Bangkuai, the Kiulu assemblyman.

Glory days of Sabah

In the few months that Warisan took over, it announced a slew of initiatives such as a RM5.2 billion railway line from Kota Kinabalu to Kudat, a hydroelectric dam in Papar and approving native land titles.

It also set up a cooking oil factory, which is part of a bigger plan to restart its manufacturing sector dormant since the 1980s.

These efforts are to return Sabah to its glory days in the 1980s when the region had enough wealth to start giving out free school uniforms, shoes and supplies to every child, said Warisan deputy president Darell Leiking in a speech at the Sepanggar Warisan division annual meeting.

Warisan also revived and completed small-scale roads, bridges and house repairs abandoned by BN, said Leiking’s party colleague Azis Jamman.

“It is unfair to compare what we did in two years with more than two decades of Sabah BN rule,” said Azis.

Warisan is seeking a fresh mandate from Sabah’s more than 1.124 million voters after its state assembly was dissolved on July 30, at the request of its own chief minister Mohd Shafie Apdal.

Shafie wanted the dissolution after he claimed that forces from the peninsula were attempting to take over Sabah by buying over assemblymen loyal to him.

Lias, the villager from Sepanggar, believes that Warisan is starting to deliver on those promises.

“People have seen how roads were tarred over and houses repaired during these past two years.”

Lias said Warisan also distributed aid throughout the kampung and Sepanggar for households which lost their incomes because of Covid-19.

“More than 200 families received food packages. Some really poor families even received two or three rounds of them.”

Ali Osman Ismail from neighbouring Kg Rempayan said the state has built low-cost houses for poor folk in the village along with upgrading its drainage system.

He disagrees with the criticism that Warisan has not done much in the past two years.

“I think the villagers also see the good they’ve done. I believe that in the election, Warisan will get about 60% of the vote from this kampung.”

Lias admits that not all of the state government’s projects have been delivered but stressed: “Warisan was in the midst of completing some of the new roads when the Sabah assembly was dissolved, only after two years. So, if they are elected back in, Warisan will complete them.” – August 19, 2020.