Chinese, the biggest losers in Sabah elections

Reflecting on the just concluded Sabah elections, putting aside party and faction, the Chinese are the biggest losers.

Election statistics showed that Chinese in Sabah, 95% of whom voted for Warisan plus was reminiscent of the General Election pattern in 2018 where Pakatan Harapan grabbed all the Chinese seats with huge majority in every seat.

It was what the Chinese called it "Ninety-Five-Percent" (NFP). However, this NFP call failed to return Warisan-plus the government.

As another Chinese saying “Bring to Holland” meaning being misled similar as the story of the “pied piper” that’s where the Chinese in Sabah are headed now.

Although GRS won the election, all its Chinese candidates from the MCA, Sabah Progressive Party, and Sabah Solidarity Party, lost in the election.

The Chinese have no representative in the new government, all Chinese candidates lost in the elections and so far there isn’t any Chinese in the Sabah State cabinet.

Under Hajiji’s administration, the top four positions, himself, a Muslim-bumi as the Chief Minister with three Deputy Chief Minister posts are held by another Muslim-bumi and two KDM..

For the first time in the history of Sabah, a traditional deputy chief minister from the Chinese community is absent from the Cabinet.

Sabah history has had three Chinese Chief Ministers namely the late Datuk Peter Lo, Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee and Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat.

Now the State under Hajiji has the option of appointing a maximum of six nominated assemblymen. He can at least appoint a few Chinese to fill the gap which is essential to avoid a marginalised community. The Chinese need representation, protection of their rights and interests in this multi-racial society. The Chinese community deserved a voice in the Cabinet.

As we witness in the federal cabinet, the Chinese representation presently are practically overwhelmed by an almost Malay-all cabinet. This does not augur well for Malaysia and we could be seeing a bleak future for the Chinese, the second largest ethnic group in the country.

During the State election, it was noticed that Perikatan Nasional component parties like SAPP had been very vocal and active through the press, organising ceramahs and social media campaign for Perikatan Nasional and its allies. How hard they fought this uphill battle against the opponent, it however just fell flat against the Tsunami of mulish Chinese voters refusing to budge from supporting Warisan-plus. Whose fault is this? Definitely, not their fault...they are strong supporters of Perikatan Nasional and thus deserve a place in the government.

Now it is seen that without Chinese support, a government can still be formed by both sides of the political divide. The Chinese in Sabah need to refocus their thoughts about this reality that has happened.

"Don’t put all your eggs in one basket", once the basket is overturned, all eggs will be broken, there is nothing left. “takda” “nyauun”, “iso”, “mau”

Partially translated and rewritten by J Chin