A WIDELY shared video of caretaker chief minister Mohd Shafie Apdal speaking in his native Bajau Suluk dialect reflects the racial undercurrents that will steer the vote in the Sabah elections this weekend.  

Experts and The Malaysian Insight’s interviews with Sabahans revealed that the racist campaign against Warisan Plus will impact on the vote on Saturday, especially among rural Kadazandusun Murut communities who are significant voting blocs in at least 26 out of the 73 seats.

In the video, Shafie, who leads the Warisan Plus coalition, is arguing that his administration is not controlled by its peninsula-based partners, PKR and DAP.

Shafie said Warisan Plus has all the freedom to govern as it sees fit and that it has helped Sabahans, including those in the Bajau Suluk sub-ethnic group, from which he is descended.

Warisan’s rivals have seized on Shafie’s speech to argue that it proves his administration is giving out plum posts to the Bajau Suluk of Semporna on the east coast.  

The video twists Warisan’s campaign tagline of “Sabah for Sabahans” to “Sabah for Sempornarian”.

To the average Sabahan voter, Semporna is associated with Suluks from the Philippines and their presence is a hot-button issue in a region that has long complained about its large population of undocumented migrants.

Fear towards the community is being exploited by the Sabah Barisan Nasional-Perikatan Nasional to unseat the Warisan Plus coalition.

Political economist Dr Firdausi Suffian likened the “Warisan-Suluk” label to the smear campaign against DAP in the peninsula.

In the peninsula, the campaign against Pakatan Harapan involves painting DAP as being “anti-Muslim, anti-Malay and communist”.

“The equivalent of this in Sabah is that Warisan is pro-Suluk, pro-illegal migrants,” said Firdausi of Universiti Teknologi Mara Sabah (UiTM Sabah).

The fear-mongering against Warisan was in full display during a recent PN ceramah in Kuala Penyu, a seat on Sabah’s southwestern coast with a high population of Brunei-Malays and KDM villages.  

PN candidate for Kuala Penyu Limus Jury said the Warisan Plus state government is building settlements in the area to house “outsiders”.

“These people breed quickly. What will happen to our own children and grandchildren? They will shed tears of blood,” said Jury at the rally.

“Don’t let this happen to our community,” Jury said at the rally where minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mustapa Mohamed was present.

Politics of fear

In Liawan, Keningau, about two hours from Kuala Penyu, Madeline Johari does not think that Jury’s warnings are mere rumours.

“They are true. Ever since Warisan took over, there are so many Filipinos in Kota Kinabalu,” said the 48-year-old.

We are afraid that if they continue to govern, they will bring them here and then they will get ICs (identity cards),” said Madeline referring to the Keningau district, a KDM heartland in Sabah’s interior.

Keningau is where the historic Sabah oath stone is placed – a monument that commemorates the pledge of allegiance between the region’s tribes and Malayan politicians in the 1960s.

Farmer Linggam Lukut also wants the regional government changed as he fears an influx of undocumented migrants into his kampung in Nabawan, which is also in Keningau.

“If we give them another five years, they will bring all these PATI (illegal immigrants) and locals won’t have jobs or businesses,” said the 63-year-old, referring to undocumented migrants by their Malay acronym.

Pollster Hisomuddin Bakar of the Ilham Centre said surveys among voters found that KDM voters, civil servants and Brunei Malays on Sabah’s southwestern coast are particularly susceptible to such rhetoric.

“But the issue is transitory. When it comes to elections, the issue will influence people but after the polls, Sabahans will go back to becoming accommodating and tolerant towards each other,” said Hisomuddim, whose think-tank is completing its latest survey for the polls.

The Warisan-PATI label is also easily dismissed and countered, said Hisomuddin, and this was echoed by other KDM voters The Malaysian Insight met.

“The PATI issue existed even before Warisan Plus came into power. When he (Shafie) was part of BN, they didn’t talk about his ethnic heritage,” said farmer Abdul Jani Yaakob of Tambunan.

“But just because he is Warisan, this issue is being played up now. This is just politics to scare people.” – September 24, 2020.