Pushing the reset button in Sabah
Datuk Seri Madius Tangau shares his thoughts on the GE14 results, frog-hopping accusations, and how the change of state and Federal governments provided Malaysians a do-over.
DATUK Seri Madius Tangau, the acting president of the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko), is a man under political fire. The 60-year-old’s sudden move to pull Upko out of Barisan Nasional and team up with Parti Warisan Sabah and its Pakatan Harapan partners a day after the May 9 general election has drawn accusations of frog-hopping. The Tuaran MP, who is now a Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah, spoke to The Star’s and MUGUNTAN VANAR FATIMAH ZAINAL.
What went through your mind when the GE14 results were pouring in?
Definitely, I was shocked. I did not expect Barisan Nasional to lose the state and Federal governments.
Even at the eleventh hour, I held discussions with key agencies and they were still confident Barisan would swing it.
The only thing they were disturbed about was how quiet the ground was.
When the results were out, I quickly called my team and asked them to remain calm, and said that we had to respect the wishes of the people.
There must be a smooth transition of power. We cannot afford to have any unrest in society.
I also went to see (Sabah Barisan chairman) Tan Sri Musa Aman on polling night. I saw many faces that were equally shocked by the results.
In fact, Sabahans are never afraid of change because we have experienced it many times when power changed hands in the past. Sabahans have handled this maturely.
History also serves as a good reminder to the current administration that we must listen to the people’s voices and appreciate those around us who tell us the bad news instead of those who only tell us things that they think we want to hear.
GE14 actually represented yet another coming together to address a crisis and provide a positive opportunity for Malaysians to focus on national interest ... a reset button. (Former Upko president) Tan Sri Bernard Dompok has been talking about the reset button for a long time.
Why did you pull out of Barisan and team up with Warisan?
I must stress that this is a consensus decision by the Upko supreme council to respect the voices of the people. It was obvious that Sabahans have spoken and that they wanted change.
After we tabulated the votes for both state and parliamentary seats, it was very clear that the split was 60-40.
Sabahans have voted for change for both state and Federal seats. I did not expect Sabah STAR to betray the wishes of Sabahans.
Sabah STAR won two seats from Barisan. If the people wanted Barisan, they wouldn’t have voted for Sabah STAR.
Hence, the moment I learnt about the crossover of Sabah STAR to Barisan, I was shocked and thought it was very wrong.
From a hung state assembly where Barisan gained 29 seats and Warisan, DAP and PKR got 29 and Sabah STAR two, the shift from Sabah STAR to Barisan would mean that Barisan had the mandate to govern the state.
However, the popular vote for the state assembly was so clear that approximately 60% of the votes were for Warisan, DAP and PKR. The Upko supreme council deliberated on whether we wanted to remain in Barisan, or we wanted to make the very difficult, yet right decision to uphold the wishes of Sabahans.
After careful deliberation, we had the consensus that the party must uphold and protect the wishes of Sabahans. Therefore, we decided to lend our support to the Warisan, DAP and PKR pact.
Social media commentators have called you and your party “political frogs”.
In politics, sometimes you have to make the correct decision, instead of the politically correct decision. The correct decision may not be the most popular but I have to see the bigger picture and as I’ve emphasised many times before, that it was a difficult decision for the party.
But it was a consensus by the party supreme council and based on the popular vote for state and parliamentary seats in Sabah.
Was there any particular assurance you and your party asked for before making that decision? Was your position as Deputy Chief Minister one of the factors? How do you plan to handle Sabah ICs and the unimplemented Royal Commission of Inquiry’s (RCI) recommendations on illegal immigrants?
No, we did not ask or negotiate for anything at all with Shafie (Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, Warisan president and Sabah Chief Minister).
After the supreme council made the decision, I went straight to see Shafie with Upko secretarygeneral Datuk Donald Mojuntin.
I remember we were so exhausted. I did not expect to see hundreds of people surrounding Shafie’s house, and there were many media person- nel and supporters.
I walked straight in, thinking that I would have a brief meeting with Shafie.
I didn’t even realise until much later that the meeting went viral on social media. From the viral video, you can see very clearly that none of us curated the meeting’s conversation. It was purely to lend our support to them and convey the party’s decision.
Upko has been very vocal in having tougher measures against illegal immigrants in Sabah. Upko had often got on the nerves of the previous Federal Government. In fact, Upko can claim success in ensuring that the Federal Government established the RCI on illegal immigrants and we will continue to champion this agenda.
Upko is also very concerned about the safety of the east coast of Sabah. Sabah and the Federal Government must take more proactive measures to beef up the security there.
Now that you are working with Shafie and Warisan, how do you reconcile the fact that during your campaign in Kadazandusun Murut and Rungus (more broadly classified as Momoguns or natives of the land) areas, you underlined the concerns that the Bajau leader from the east would further dilute the Momogun position in Sabah with the threat of migrants?
The current Warisan, DAP, PKR and Upko state government is a very well balanced administration. In fact, we have not had such an equation under the previous administrations.
This is the first time you see three Chinese and three Kadazandusun in the Cabinet.
I look forward to a positive distribution of responsibilities among the parties and putting election campaigns behind us as building and developing Sabah should be our priority now.
For a political pact to work, we must put aside differences and work as a team. I am very excited and believe my current colleagues in the Cabinet share the same spirit and enthusiasm.
Shafie is very down-to-earth and he speaks from the heart. I can relate to that.
Yes, the concern of the Momogun people against the infiltration of foreigners is real and the sentiment against it is strong.
But I believe that Shafie is on the same page (as us) to protect the rights of Sabahans and that’s why he has been championing Sabah for Sabahans.
Do you believe that state rights under Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) will be achieved under a Warisan government?
This state government is a Warisan, DAP, PKR and Upko government. Warisan and Pakatan have mentioned in their respective manifestos that they will honour MA63.
Upko is confident that with the current Sabah government, we have a very strong consensus that we should make sure the Federal Government respects and upholds MA63, and returns the rights of the Sabahans to the Sabahans.