Federal-state relations in Sabah, Malaysia. The Berjaya administration, 1976-85

REGINA LIM

Federal-state relations in Sabah, Malaysia. The Berjaya administration, 1976-85  

Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2008, x, 153pp.ISBN 978-981-230-811-5 (pb S$39.90/US$29.90), 978-981-230-812-2 (hb S$59.90/US$49.90), 978-981-230-813-9 (e-version S$100.00/US$80.00).

Reviewed by Victor King, Leeds University

One of the preoccupations in domestic political studies of Malaysia has been that of federal-state relations, particularly with regard to the Malaysian Borneo territories of Sarawak and Sabah.  This is for the simple reason that as less developed late-comers to the Federation, geographically separated from West Malaysia by a large expanse of sea, and with their own particular histories, identities and ethnic composition, the potential for conflict and tension between senior political leaders in the two Borneo states and the political elite in Kuala Lumpur has been considerable. What has been of special interest in the period since the formation of Malaysia in 1963 is the process by which federal politicians have attempted to organise and control potentially troublesome constituent states by drawing them into patron-client relations, using revenue flows and economic policy to reward or punish state leadership, deploying legislation in the interest of national security, federalising state institutions, and engineering the gradual acceptance of a Kuala Lumpur-based political, administrative and economic model. In the case of Sabah this exercise of progressive ‘Malayanisation’ has been relatively successful and the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), unlike the situation in neighbouring Sarawak, has managed to make significant inroads into the local political and electoral scene.  These are the themes which Regina Lim addresses in her very useful study of contemporary politics in Sabah, specifically during the period of Harris Salleh’s BERJAYA administration (Parti Bersatu Rakyat Jelata Sabah, United Sabah People’s Party; 1976-1985) when the state government in effect capitulated and the interests of the Malay-Muslim elite and UMNO in Kuala Lumpur where progressively accommodated.

The book emerged from postgraduate research conducted at Universiti Sains Malaysia under the supervision of Francis Loh Kok Wah who has himself undertaken important work on Sabah politics. Lim adopts a long-range historical perspective in attempting to understand the trajectory of local politics from 1976. Indeed, BERJAYA really only comes on to the scene from chapter 4, a third of the way through the book. Lim considers the pre-colonial jajahan and datu systems, then North Borneo under Chartered Company rule from 1881 to 1941 (which is a well covered period in the literature), followed by a brief look at the Japanese and British crown colony periods, before examining post-independence politics. Part of her analysis also focuses on the competition and struggles between local Muslim politicians and Kadazan-Dusun leaders, exemplified in the well known pre-1976 encounter between Tun Mustapha Harun of the pro-Muslim United Sabah National Organisation (USNO) and Donald Stephens of the United National Kadazan Organisation (UNKO), and then the United National Pasok Mamogun Organisation (UPKO). These tensions and Tun Mustapha’s colourful and, from a federal perspective, independent political style paved the way for the emergence of the federal-sponsored Berjaya. Lim makes the important point that Sabah politics was very much about personalities and patronage, especially evident in the Tun Mustapha years when the state was run like a personal fiefdom, though in part dependent on patron-client relations between local politicians and senior UMNO leaders.

The main focus of the book is the way in which BERJAYA attempted to reconcile the pressures being exerted at the federal level with the demands of the various ethnic constituencies in Sabah. Lim considers BERJAYA’s fitful struggle to overcome the continuing challenge of Tun Mustapha’s USNO and its eventual electoral demise at the hands of Joseph Pairin Kitingan’s Sabah United Party (Parti Bersatu Sabah, PBS) and his championing of the Kadazan cause. To address the aspirations of both the Muslim and non-Muslim native communities of Sabah BERJAYA adopted a multiracial ideology, although, unable to resist an increasingly national pro-Malay-Muslim stance from the 1980s it too presided over the progressive Islamisation and Malayanisation of state-level administration. Sabah also witnessed the phenomena of Muslim conversions and the influx of Muslims from the Philippines and Indonesia. Where it had somewhat more success in securing its legitimacy was in its policy of ‘technocratic developmentalism’, which also fitted well with the prevailing Barisan Nasional policies of development under Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. This in turn depended on the politicisation of development, underpinned by the exploitation of natural resources, particularly timber, and the operation of patronage networks through timber concessions, the Sabah Foundation, the Sabah Economic Development (SEDCO), the BERJAYA-sponsored cooperative movement (KOBERSA) and Village Development Committees (Jawatankuasa Kemajuan Kampung, JKK). Eventually BERJAYA’s attempts to secure the support of Muslim voters at the expense of USNO, its cultural and political marginalisation of the non-Muslim native communities, its emphasis on national rather than local priorities, as well as its patronage system which favoured some and not others led to its downfall. BERJAYA lost out to the PBS and USNO in the 1985 elections, one emphasising ‘the salience of cultural identity’ and the other ‘the importance of Islam’ (p. 122).

As with the earlier discussion of Tun Mustapha and Donald Stephens it would have been helpful to have had a more detailed exposition of personalities and patronage networks operating during the BERJAYA period.  Harris Salleh, for example, receives only a few passing references and the internal workings of the BERJAYA administration are not really revealed to any extent. The emphasis is on its policies and overt political actions. Nevertheless, Lim’s book is nicely argued and a welcome addition to the politico-historical literature on Malaysian Borneo; it is a thoughtful, well structured study of a relatively neglected period in Sabah’s post-colonial history.