On November 29, the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah held elections to the state assembly. The poll was dominated by two Sabah-based parties: Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), a political coalition loosely aligned with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s ruling bloc, which won 29 of the 73 seats in the assembly and maintained its hold on power in Sabah. It was followed closely by rival Warisan (“heritage”), a multi-ethnic opposition party that promotes the idea that Sabah “must be run by Sabahans, for Sabahans,” which won 25 seats.

Perhaps the biggest story was the decline in the electoral fortunes of Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, which won just one of the 20 state assembly seats it contested, down from the eight it held previously in the state. This seat was won by Anwar’s own People’s Justice Party, but its coalition partner, the Democratic Action Party (DAP), traditionally associated with the ethnic Chinese community, failed to retain any of the six seats it previously held in the Sabah state assembly.

The defeat of peninsula-based parties and the emergence of a local duopoly of pro-Sabah parties reflect the growing disenchantment in the federal government in Kuala Lumpur and a desire for regional autonomy. James Chin of the University of Tasmania, a leading observer of Malaysian politics, spoke with The Diplomat’s Southeast Asia Editor Sebastian Strangio about what the election means for the future of politics in Sabah, and its relationship with the federal government in Kuala Lumpur.

Let’s start with the most obvious storyline from the election. How do you interpret the collapse of Pakatan Harapan (PH)’s support in Sabah, in particular, the DAP’s failure to retain any of the six seats it previously held in the Sabah state assembly?

The most........

© The Diplomat