KOTA KINABALU – BN is likely to face an uphill task in Sabah’s Chinese-majority seats as voters’ sentiments remained inclined largely to “anything but Umno”.
Chinese voters in Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, and Tawau seem to be sticking to the same mantra when voting – vote for any party other than Umno or BN. This had favoured DAP in the past when the party had secured the three seats in the last general election.
But now with Warisan no longer in the same coalition with DAP, and with the former singing “Sabah party for Sabah”, Warisan’s strength in these seats cannot be underestimated.
Kota Kinabalu
The GRS-BN pact is likely to be represented by a PBS candidate in the parliamentary constituency for Sabah’s capital city.
There is no question that PH will be sending a DAP candidate, while Warisan has announced it will be contesting in all parliamentary seats in Sabah.
There is talk on the ground that Sabah Association of Tour and Travel Agents president Datuk Seri Winston Liaw had become Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat’s (KDM) Kota Kinabalu division chief and wants to contest the seat.
However, KDM has been applying to join GRS, so contesting the seat and going up against PBS would mean destroying its chances of being accepted into GRS.
Chinese voters are recorded as 62.52% of the electorate here according to 2018 data.
Living in a developing urban area, Kota Kinabalu residents’ largest concern right now is the massive traffic jams that are becoming worse by the day.
Voters here long for a better transportation system, which would increase their productivity and speed up development, but more importantly, make them less miserable.
Sandakan
In the second largest city in Sabah, Sandakan, a by-election in 2019 saw Vivian Wong from DAP winning big, replacing her father’s seat after the late Datuk Stephen Wong died a year after the 14th general election.
There are people here saying that Vivian did not win the seat with her own capabilities but was only inheriting what her father had – people voted for her because of her father’s contributions, not hers.
But after three years in service, people in Sandakan are responding positively to her name, saying that she is a hardworking rep.
But is it enough to win their votes?
With the sentiment “Sabah party for Sabah” becoming increasingly popular, DAP could be facing a close fight with Warisan here.
But this will largely depend on the candidate that Warisan is going to field in this seat – the major factor is, do people know this candidate? Warisan might only have the upper hand if a seasoned politician or someone known among the locals is its candidate.
As for the GRS-BN side, it is still unclear if a candidate from SAPP (GRS) or MCA is going to be fielded.
The stagnant economy in Sandakan has been the largest concern among the locals for years.
It used to be a prosperous town, with its population living comfortably on the spillover effect from the timber sector. But when the timber era ended, Sandakan started relying on the palm oil sector and tourism.
The palm oil sector appeared to not benefit the people in Sandakan directly due to a lack of development in its downstream industry, while the tourism sector had been impacted by security concerns – the Lahad Datu-Tanduo intrusion (2013) and the seafood restaurant kidnapping incident (2015).
As a result, Sandakan is losing youth manpower due to a lack of high-quality jobs amid a desperate longing for development.
The ethnic breakdown for voters in Sandakan is: Chinese (49.49%), Muslim Bumiputera (43.9%), and non-Muslim Bumiputera (5.71%) in 2018.
Tawau
It is interesting to see if Tawau is going to see Chinese contenders for the seat, as the seat is no longer a Chinese-majority one with 60.71% of voters being Muslim Bumiputera, while Chinese voters stood at 33.56%, according to 2018 data.
All Tawau MPs since the constituency was first contested in 1971 have been Chinese, with the latest one being Datuk Christina Liew from PKR.
Liew, if fielded in Tawau, might face a strong opponent from PBS – a young candidate, Lo Su Fui, who is said to have been very active in the political scene in Tawau for the past few years.
Some parties also said that Liew’s support has been declining, claiming that she had not been active in Tawau as she had been focusing more on her state constituency in Api-Api, Kota Kinabalu.
Warisan, on the other hand, might not have a strong candidate, but the presence of the party itself in Tawau is rather strong, according to locals.
Like Sandakan, Warisan’s chances of winning the Tawau seat might depend heavily on the candidate that it chooses here.
The people of Tawau are mainly concerned with poor town planning – traffic jams and lack of parking spaces in town – while the Chinese voters here are concerned with their position as the Bumiputera Muslim population grows in the district.
A Chinese voter here said she wants the Tawau MP to create more opportunities for the Chinese, such as creating a night market focusing on Chinese voters like ones that are in Sandakan (Kim Fung Night Market) and Kota Kinabalu (Gaya Street Market). – The Vibes, October 25, 2022
