Libaran’s malaise: cry for infrastructure, employment amid spectre of racial politics

SANDAKAN – A viral picture of children risking their lives crossing a dilapidated bridge in the Kg Nelayan Tengah constituency has shown that not all is well in Sabah’s Libaran parliamentary constituency.

Presenting a very different picture from the relatively more affluent and prosperous neighbouring constituency of Sandakan, the people of Libaran are dogged by issues such as poor conditions of roads, dysfunctional street lights, and inept basic maintenance of public infrastructure. 

Then there are the persistent traffic jams from Mile 7 to Mile 16 during peak hours, and a lack of maintenance of other facilities such as hanging bridges, like the one in Kg Nelayan Tengah.   

“We are not asking for much. We just want what we already have to be maintained,” said a Libaran voter, Muhammad Zaid.   

Libaran consists of three state seats, namely Sg Sibuga (where former chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman had been a rep for 26 years), Sg Manila (a new state seat carved from the Sabah state election in 2020), and Gum-Gum (the only one of three seats held by the opposition, Warisan).

Sg Sibuga is the most developed area in Libaran. It includes schools, residential areas, and booming commercial properties in Mile 7, where Mydin Hypermarket and shopping mall Sejati Walk are situated.

People living in Mile 7 basically do not need to leave the area for shopping, banking, and government affairs, as the government offices are also located in the constituency.

The satellite town is rather complete and the residents here do not need to go to town.   

Residents are mostly from the middle-income group, working as government servants or in private companies.   

However, it is completely different in Sg Manila and Gum-Gum, where there are mostly fishermen earning the bare minimum, living in villages that are isolated from any town or shoplots.

These two state constituencies contribute to the large difference in the ratio between the physical scale of Libaran and the size of its population.   

Libaran is about 35 times bigger than the Kota Kinabalu federal constituency. With a size of 930 sq km, its population is smaller than Kota Kinabalu, with only about 50,941 voters, according to the record in 2020.

Most of Sandakan’s state government and federal government offices are located in Libaran, as well as the Sandakan Education Hub with several higher learning institutions, and the Sandakan Airport.

There is also the Libaran Islamic Centre Complex about a few kilometres from Musa’s residence, which was approved in 2016 and is currently under construction.  

While the residents living in the more developed areas are crying for maintenance of basic facilities and traffic jams, those living in villages from Mile 9 to Mile 16 Gum-Gum (Sg Manila and Gum-Gum) are crying for job opportunities.  

The lack of development in the area is the cause. Here (Sg Manila and Gum-Gum) there are only several shops, and a lot of schools in the area are still utilising dilapidated wooden buildings.  

Hazik Abdullah, 57, is a local fisherman whose two sons have moved to Kota Kinabalu to work.

“It is either they stay here with me and work under the sun as a fisherman, or go to the city to get an office job. I want them to have a comfortable job,” he said.   

Sad reality of racial politics   

There have been mixed responses from locals about Libaran MP, Datuk Zakaria Edris of Bersatu. For some, their patience at not seeing him around is wearing thin and has even hit a boiling point.

On the other hand, Bumiputera Muslims here appear to generally favour Zakaria. Of these, respondents like Sarah say he has a good track record and they will continue to vote for him.   

She said that Zakaria was present to give out food baskets during the pandemic, had helped in delivering assistance to fire victims, and had given an allocation to fix several mosques here.   

The Chinese voters, however, said that they feel left out because they have never seen Zakaria, and some do not even know who their MP is.   

Leo Lo said that the Chinese only want a platform for them to reach their MP, for them to issue their complaints. But they claim they do not find this with Zakaria and his team.   

“At times, we have complaints like bad road conditions and serious traffic jams that are affecting our lives.

We want the MP to acknowledge our problem, but he is not easily accessible, unlike our other MP in Sandakan (Sandakan MP Vivian Wong) who provides an office, a hotline number for people to easily send a complaint,” he said.   

Libaran voters’ racial make-up comprises 39% Sabah Bumiputera, 30% Malay, 17% Chinese, and 14% other groups. 

Zakaria’s focus on the Bumiputera groups is perhaps for strategic political reasons, as the Malay and Bumiputera Sabah people make up 69% of the voters.  

Residents relying on other reps?

According to Elopura rep Calvin Chong, who is with Warisan, the locals in Libaran had even reached out to him for help even though it is not his jurisdiction, as they could not reach their own MP.   

“I have met with the school management and urged the relevant government agencies to address the heavy traffic jam issue in Taman Kwong Lok, Mile 7.   

“The residents came to me claiming that they have tried to reach their own MP but failed. Thus, they came to me and pleaded for me to help,” said Chong.   

Zakaria, a first-time MP, won the Libaran seat on an Umno ticket in the last election and joined Bersatu in 2019.   

He won the east coast federal seat with a slim majority of 17,799 votes against strong Warisan rival Irwanshah Mustapa, who garnered 17,121 votes due to a strong anti-Umno sentiment at the time.   

Despite winning, the former Gum-Gum assemblyman made no effort to strengthen his grip on the constituency.  

From bad roads, unlit street lights, bad traffic jams and a dilapidated bridge controversy that seems hard to shake off in the minds of the Libaran voters, Zakaria’s botched effort could see Umno demanding the seat from partner Gabungan Rakyat Sabah alliance in the forthcoming 15th general election (GE15).  

Umno’s chances in Libaran   

If not for Zakaria shifting his party membership to Bersatu, Libaran would have still remained an Umno seat, as it had been since it was first contested in 1995.   

Umno’s support in Libaran appears to be strong because of what Musa has contributed to the Libaran seat during his time as Sg Sibuga rep, which at the time also included the Sg Manila area.   

Nobody can deny that Musa had developed Mile 7 like nobody else. From an empty land to now a satellite town that has businesses thriving, new shops, roads all paved; all the new developments in Mile 7 were all thanks to him.   

“But even though business in Mile 7 is still growing rapidly, the physical development in this area has seemed to stop after Musa is gone,” said a voter, Kenny Ho, referring to Musa’s departure in 2018.   

During the state election in 2020, Umno won Sg Sibuga with a 20% majority (by 1,538 votes), and Sg Manila with a 30% majority (1,417 votes), both against Warisan.   

Umno’s support in Sg Sibuga and Sg Manila could potentially mean higher support for Umno in Libaran in GE15.      

What about opposition presence in Libaran?

Even though Warisan almost won the Libaran seat in 2020 through its candidate Irwanshah Mustapa, the man is not likely to return as Warisan’s candidate, as he has since joined Parti Cinta Sabah. He contested the Sg Sibuga seat under the new ticket and lost his deposit, as he garnered only 526 votes.   

Azlani, a local here, said that he is not sure if Warisan will be able to do a better job than they did in Libaran during the last polls, because voters were more motivated to topple the Umno government at the time because of then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his 1MDB scandal.   

He also said that Warisan has not been making a strong presence in Libaran for the past four years, taking Gum-Gum assemblyman Arunarnsin Taib for example, who he claimed has been very quiet and has yet to make significant movements locally despite winning the seat twice (2018 and 2020).   

“Ask anyone here: who is Warisan’s politician in Sg Sibuga? Sg Manila? I don’t think people will be able to answer.   

“I think if Warisan is going to push for a fresh candidate that I am not familiar with, I might vote for the one that I already know, like Zakaria,” he said. – The Vibes, July 31, 2022