Testing the mindset on both sides of South China Sea

The nomination of Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal as the premier could boost national integration efforts

FORMER prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, never fails to disappoint with bold, out-ofthe-box ideas.

He did so again with the suggestion to nominate Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, as the opposition’s candidate for prime minister.

The idea set tongues wagging all across the nation, not least across the sea in Sabah and Sarawak.

It might have been little more than one of those tongue-incheek statements Dr Mahathir is well-known for, but the magic worked.

Reactions were almost instantaneous.

Predictably, those aligned to the current Perikatan Nasional (PN) government thought it a ridiculous idea, with Parti Rakyat Sarawak President Tan Sri Dr James Masing for example, dismissing it as part of a hidden political agenda.

Those ridiculing the idea have a point.

Shafie, as a former senior member of both Umno and the national Cabinet, may have what it takes to hack it as prime minister.

However, his current Parti Warisan Sabah commands all of nine Members of Parliament and is thus, the most junior partner in the opposition pact.

Parliamentary democracy functions primarily as a game of numbers, with the political leader commanding a parliamentary majority becoming prime minister and the leader securing the political allegiance of the minority becoming official opposition leader.

The current opposition leader is thought to be Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim whose party, prior to resignations and defections, had the most MPs in Pakatan Harapan.

That Dr Mahathir ended up as our 7th prime minister instead owed much to his own largerthan-life political persona in the country. It is doubtful that he could transfer that personal aura to anyone else, which he is evidently trying for with the Shafie-for-PM escapade.

The idea, unfortunately, looks like pure tokenism. It certainly deserves better.

That said, that a Sabahan is now being bandied about as a potential prime minister has captured the popular imagination in both Sabah and Sarawak.

It is as if some invisible bar preventing political leaders from either state becoming the country’s leader has been removed.

But, of course, if there was ever any obstacle preventing a Sabahan or Sarawakian becoming prime minister, I daresay that obstacle was there largely of the making of politicians and voters in both states.

Narrow regional parochialism has played a large role and remains the main obstacle in preventing the idea taking hold and, one day, becoming reality.

Dr Mahathir’s latest political stunt has a certain logic to it.

It was he, after all, as Umno president and our 4th prime minister, who expanded the party to Sabah.

If, as a result of that eastward expansion, Sabah Umno had been better organised and not solely preoccupied with all things Sabahan but promoted some semblance of a national outlook, it could have turned itself into a formidable and maybe even the preeminent state party branch and whoever leading it could have been a good candidate for party president and prime minister.

It takes tedious political work for any state leader with national foresight to insinuate both himself and the state he leads into the national consciousness.

It is not impossible, as many in both states seem to imagine it is.

The more likely hindrance is a lack of imagination among leaders in the two states as well as the general populace in Sabah and Sarawak.

Instead of seeking to capture national power, politicians in both states appear content to be exclusively state-based and railing against whatever grievances they may actually have or perceive to have with the national powers-that-be.

Of course, such battle-cries in large part reflect popular thinking in both the eastern states.

Sabah and Sarawak came into the federation idea with a fairly distinct consciousness and complex that they were then poorer and less sophisticated cousins to those in the peninsula.

Much has actually changed since 1963 to make most of that outdated.

So Shafie-as-PM may be little more than the latest political gambit of Dr Mahathir.

However, if it helps clear mental cobwebs residing within all Malaysians, it would have done much to further real nationbuilding and national integration efforts.

A new “national” mindset is overdue on both sides of the South China Sea.

The writer views developments in the nation, region and wider world from his vantage point in Kuching, Sarawak