TO conclude the year 2018, the political scenario in Sabah was action-packed. After the 14th General Eelection (GE14), Sabahans witness a change of government, followed by the two Chief Minister crisis (this has been resolved by the court) and towards the end of 2018 en bloc Sabah UMNO members quit the party.

Nine assemblymen, five MPs and two senators along with 21 division heads quit the party. This frustrated and confused Sabahans again.

While we thought after the court decided who was the legitimate Chief Minister, this could at least calm down the situation and enable the ruling government to focus on planning and implementing economic developmental policies based on Warisan’s manifesto.

But it did not end there, instead of planning to become an effective opposition and act as a check and balance for the developmental policy, Sabah UMNO members quit the party.

While party hopping, and allegiance switching are pretty much common in Sabah (this is something not to be proud of) but looking from the logic as why they left the party is discernible.

Firstly, after UMNO was dislodged by Pakatan Harapan, the party is unstable, unorganized, lack strong leadership and busy with court cases related to corruption.

They also tried to forge a close relationship with PAS. Being friendly to the PAS does not really bode well with UMNO Sabah leaders because PAS is not a favorable party in Sabah.

A close relationship with PAS does not give advantage for UMNO Sabah. Sabah's unique ethnics relations and tolerance does not suit with PAS' ideology.

It looks like UMNO Sabah leaders have lost confidence with the political formula employed by the new successor at the national level.

Furthermore, at the state level UMNO Sabah also found the lack of capable leaders with a strong vision to ensure for their political survival. Hence this triggered them to press the ‘quit button’.

Ironically when they decided to leave the party, they pledged support for the Pakatan Harapan government and Warisan state government.

Aren’t they supposed to pledge to the rakyat and become an effective opposition? Aren’t they supposed to ensure effective implementation of policies?

If they pledged to support the ruling central and state government then who will be the opposition?

It is obvious the real purpose as why they quit the party – is all about looking after their belly (jaga perut sendiri). This is understandable because switching sides in Sabah is pretty much a product of ‘political patronage culture’.

For decades Sabah UMNO depended much on state resources to finance their political funding, so being the opposition, these UMNO leaders may have lost access to state resources and even break the political patronage. This affects political funding and make it difficult to maintain their political activities.

Previously these leaders can use the state government machinery to finance their political activities to please their voters. Furthermore, as power holder they can award projects to their ‘clients’ (academically speaking rent-seeker) which in return could finance their activities.

But after UMNO lost at parliament and state, this broke the eco-system of the political patronage. Being the opposition will be hard to maintain their political survival, hence to maintain their political private interest, opting out is the best option.

As independent leaders, while ‘friendly’ to PH and Warisan at least there is hope to get access to state resources.

The decision to quit from UMNO en bloc affects the government institutions. These leaders who won under the UMNO platform, should devise ways on how to become a strong opposition pact with other parties like STARS and PBS. This should be the primary focus, not individual political interest.

Now rumour has it former Sabah UMNO leaders want to bring in Bersatu in Sabah, how is that logical when Bersatu is another peninsular-based party? Sabahans learnt while under the BN-led-UMNO (a Peninsular based party) it was difficult to champion the state rights because they have to 'kowtow' to the party president in Peninsular.

The federal-state relations is a contentious one, having Bersatu, who controls the federal government would surely change the political dynamic in the Sabah. The Warisan government would have a hard time to act as one political party to pressure the central government relating to state rights.

Sabah is in dire need of a development policy, the state recorded the highest unemployment rate (5.7 per cent), highest poverty rate (2.6 per cent), most uneven income distribution, lacking infrastructure, human capital development and etc.

While the Warisan government have placed development planning to address the socio-economic problem, elected representatives should focus making sure the plan is executed and act as check and balance to the state.

A strong opposition can give new dynamic in policy planning and implementation in Sabah. Instead of putting Sabahans' interest before them they decided to ‘play-safe’ by quitting UMNO for their own political survival.

Too much politics filled with personal interest will not help Sabah's economic development rather, we will continue to stay behind.

* Dr Firdausi Suffian is Political Economy and Policy Analysis at Universiti Teknologi MARA.

** Views expressed here are strictly of the author's and does not necessarily reflect Astro AWANI's.