IN a social media post, Sabah voter Afiqah Izzati took direct aim at the problematic political culture of party crossovers that is at the heart of her home region’s elections.

Her Instagram post reflects the difficult question in Sabahan minds as they are forced to vote in the midst of a pandemic and economic recession – what use is casting one’s ballot if the chosen candidate can just switch sides after the results are called?

The September 26 elections are being called precisely because of party-hopping and coalition switching between state lawmakers that brought down the Warisan Plus government.

Political scientists said the culture is not just a phenomenon in Sabah where politicians who do it are derisively called “katak” (frogs).

They said the most significant crossover episode in Malaysian history was the “Sheraton move” in late February this year which brought down the Pakatan Harapan federal government.

The practice is normal in all democracies, even mature ones, they said, but the reason it is a problem in Malaysia is because of a fundamental flaw in the political structure – it does not pay, literally, to be an opposition parliamentary or assemblyman.

In her short video, Afiqah, a voter in Libaran, addresses this problem by urging her fellow Sabahans to demand that the politicians canvassing for their votes change this structure when elected.

“Development allocations for opposition and government party seats should be given out equally. This is the issue why people jump parties,” said Afiqah.

“When people ask the politicians who switched sides why they did it, they will say it’s to ensure there is development in their area,” she said, referring to constituency development funds.

In Sabah and many other states and regions, funds for building roads, bridges and street lights are funnelled directly from the state government to the assemblyman of the same coalition or party.

In Sabah especially, opposition reps don’t get a sen of the RM1.1 million, as the funds for their constituency are channelled to a representative of the ruling party in that area called the “DUN coordinator”.  

“These coordinators will usually become the ruling party’s candidate in the next election,” said Afiqah.

Political scientist Dr Wong Chin Huat echoed these views in his own social media post on the fall of the Warisan Plus government.

“If being in the opposition remains dreadful, if being in government means unlimited power, party-hopping and political instability will likely continue after this state election,” said Wong of Sunway University.

“Some of those frogs are probably very popular on the ground and some of their voters cannot care less under which party or logo they run.

“And their popularity may even stem from the fact that they are in state or federal government and can bring home money for their constituents.”

Turbulent ties

Switching alliances, said Sabah-based political scientist Dr Firdausi Abdullah, is part of the constitutional provision of freedom of association but it can be problematic and unethical.

“The problem is that when people switch parties and it brings down a government,” said Firdausi as this leads to instability which makes it hard for meaningful policies to be implemented.

It has occurred a lot more frequently in Sabah because of the turbulent history between its political parties and the peninsula, starting in the 1980s and into the 1990s.

Warisan Plus’ decision to dissolve the assembly to prevent a takeover is similar to what the former Berjaya state government did in February 1985.

According to a Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia paper by political scientist Muhammad Agus Yusoff, Berjaya chief minister Harris Salleh did this because he was losing his lawmakers to young upstart party Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS).

Berjaya was part of the then Barisan Nasional coalition in Putrajaya while PBS was considered an opposition party.

“Having won the elections, PBS, well aware that the federal government held the vital purse strings to federal development funds, immediately reapplied to join BN in order to avoid facing the predicament of having scant access to development funding.

“PBS was anxious lest the federal government, backed as it was by a powerful security structure, seek opportunities to use its emergency powers to end the tenure of the PBS in office,” said Agus in his paper titled Sabah politics under Pairin.

When former chief minister Musa Aman launched his bid to take over the government from Warisan Plus in late July, he also used the same rationale – that Sabah’s continued development would be more secure if the state and federal government are in the same alliance.  

Firdausi said as long as Putrajaya controls the purse strings for Bornoe, the “katak” culture will be hard to stop.

“The difference between a mature democracy and the one like ours is that in the former, people switch camps due to ideology. In Malaysia, it is a matter of survival.” – September 13, 2020.