GRS better off solo if BN-PH team up in Sabah polls, says analyst

May 25, 2024

GRS better off solo if BN-PH team up in Sabah polls, says analyst

PETALING JAYA: An analyst says Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) would be better off going solo for the coming Sabah elections rather than linking up with Perikatan Nasional, amid talk of Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan teaming up for the polls.

National Council of Professors fellow Azmi Hassan said speculation of a BN-PH partnership would likely prompt PN to seek collaboration with Hajiji Noor’s GRS at the next state polls.

Hajiji, the Sabah chief minister, headed Sabah Bersatu but led an exodus of elected representatives in December 2022. They went on to form the unity government and took over Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (Gagasan Rakyat).

However, Azmi said Sabahan voters may not like GRS working with the peninsula-based Bersatu.

“GRS is purely composed of Sabah-based parties. If it joins up with Bersatu, GRS will have to share its seats with them,” he told FMT.

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The 2020 state elections saw Sabah Bersatu and Umno cooperating under the GRS banner. Sabah Bersatu won 11 seats. Several Warisan assemblymen defected to Sabah Bersatu in later months.

However, a Hajiji-led exodus in 2022 left Bersatu without a single assemblyman in Sabah, while vice-president Ronald Kiandee is now Sabah Bersatu’s sole MP.

On Wednesday, FMT quoted a source as saying BN and PH were expected to be allies for the state polls with Warisan and Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (PKDM) likely involved. All four are already part of the federal unity government.

However, there is opposition from some within PKR to this, with Sabah PH chairman Christina Liew among those who prefer to continue the existing cooperation with GRS.

Azmi said BN and PH would prefer a pact with Warisan and PKDM given Sabah Umno’s continued animosity towards GRS.

“Umno views GRS as having stabbed them in the back during the last state elections,” he said, referring to seat clashes after several GRS leaders were fielded as independent candidates against Umno.

“(An alliance between) PH, Umno, Warisan and KDM seems to be the logical choice, not only for the state but for the federal level,” he added.

However, Oh Ei Sun of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs said Sabah could see significant political realignment after the state polls, adding that elections in the state tend to make for “strange political bedfellows”.

“Opposition parties without deep political roots could dissolve wholesale and their elected representatives, if any, could join the ruling coalition en masse,” he said.