Birth of a New Political Party

Welcome back friends and thank you for coming back. With the reproduction of the above front page of the July 16, 1975 edition of the Daily Express (of Sabah, not Britain), the answer as to why Salleh Sulong resigned as a Minister two days earlier has been answered even if I don't tell you. For a larger view, please click on the images. Sorry folks, I had to split the frontpage into two because the photostat machine at the archive that I went to couldn't fit the entire page.

So after days or perhaps even weeks of speculation, a new political party was finally born in Sabah to challenge the then ruling Alliance Party, a coalition comprising the United Sabah National Organisation (Usno) and the Sabah Chinese Association (SCA). In a normal democracy, this would have been no big deal; just the birth of yet another political party; so what. However, in this case it was 'big deal', something which took Sabahans by storm or at least a big surprise. This was because until the birth of Berjaya, to actually form a new party to challenge Alliance (to be exact Usno which was the dominating partner) was almost unthinkable in the minds of Sabahans. Unthinkable not only because Alliance was firmly entrenched in power but also because no one would risk going to jail (the famous Kepayan 'university') as the government of the day then still had what was known as 'special detention power'. This power came about in the aftermath of the unfortunate May 13, 1969 racial riots in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Following the riots and chaos which spread to neighbouring Singapore and some major towns of Peninsular Malaysia, a state of emergency was declared and Parliament suspended. A National Operations Committee was created instead, with the then Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Tun Razak as Director of Operations. And as Director he was also in charge of the army and the police and among the special power that he had was to detain any 'trouble maker' (or suspect) without trial (not unsimilar to the present ISA). In the case of Sabah and Sarawak, this power was delegated to the Chief Minister in his capacity as the Director of the State Operations Committee. Although normalcy later returned and Parliament reconvened, somehow this power remained in the hands of the two Chief Ministers. Whether it was an oversight on the part of Kuala Lumpur, I don't know, but it was something which the central government seemed to regret later on and had the power quickly withdrawn from the Chief Minister just before the formation of the Berjaya Party. The State Commissioner of Police was also transferred. (The fact that Berjaya was formed with the blessings of the federal government was an open secret.) In Bahasa Malaysia (Malay), the national language of the nation, Berjaya means success and it cerainly was a good choice as the young party went on to win the election and formed the state government only nine months later.

Just to illustrate how powerfully entrenched the Alliance Party was as the State Government and how effective the special power of detention had been, the ruling party won all 32 seats 'uncontesed' in the 1971 state general election. It first formed the state government in 1967 after Sabah's first direct election, winning 19 seats (Usno 14, SCA 5). The other initial member of the Alliance, Upko (United Pasok Momogun Organisation) won 12 seats and was left out of the new government. Upko was eventually dissolved and its members encouraged to join Usno. The remaining seat was won by Yap Pak Leong (now Datuk), an accountant and independent candidate who held the distinction of being the first person to defeat the incumbent Chief Minister (lawyer Peter Lo, now Tan Sri, of SCA). But Yap paid a heavy price for he soon became an 'undergraduate' at the 'Kepayan university'. In the 1974 nationwide parliamentary election, again the Sabah Alliance managed to deliver all 16 federal seats to help the National Alliance Party formed the Malaysian government again. Out of these, 15 seats were won 'unopposed' on nomination day.

Thus, Sabahans since 1969 were 'not used to' opposing the government. For years, neither were they used to seeing the Alliance government being criticized in the newspapers. So one could imagine their surprise or perhaps even disbelief but at thesame time joy, when they woke up on July 16,1975 to find the entire frontpage of the Daily Express (which hitherto had been pro-government) dedicated to the launch of a new party the previous day, July 15 1975. Although the majority of the Sabahans welcome Berjaya's birth as evidenced by its election victory, they were however still very careful and dared only to whisper to each other in coffeeshops and had to look behind their shoulders while discussing the latest political developments. This was because they still did not know that the Chief Minister's power of detention had been withdrawn and this news was only conveyed to them days later. Once the news was out, it was all systems go as people joined the new party in full force, no longer fearing detention. Meanwhile, Daily Express dared to go against the state government as the central government had also withdrawn from Sabah's Chief Minister's Department the power delegated to them to approve newspaper licenses which had to be renewed annually.

Coming back to the press clipping above, the newly-born Berjaya party claimed that 7 out of 32 elected State Assemblymen (the State equivalent of Members of Parliament) had joined them. However, Salleh Sulong became only an ordinary Supreme Council Member, despite having resigned as a Cabinet Minister. The new party was to be led by Datuk Harris Salleh, another former Usno Minister. The three Vice Presidents were federal minister Datuk Ghani Gilong; Daily Express owner Datuk Yeh Pao Tzu and former Sabah Electricty Board chairman Haji Ampong Puyon. The secretary-general was former top civil servant Haji Mohd Noor Mansoor, assisted by Joseph Pairin Kitingan; both lawyers. The treasurer was former Assistant Minister and Kadazan nationalist Datuk Peter Mojuntin. Among the notable personalities named in the Council line-up was yet another Usno Minister, Datuk Yassin Hj Hashim, though he did not make an official announcement until a couple of days later. Yet another figure worth mentioning was a young university lecturer James Ongkili who was described in Syed Kechik's book as "who had been waiting in the wings of academia for the right time to jump into Sabah politics." I say 'worth mentioning' because in the mid-1970s Sabah still did not have that many university graduates and being the first Sabahan to be university lecturer he was considered one of the most educated Sabahans. At the time he lectured in the University of Malaya, the former District Officer (his childhood dream) held a Masters Degree from Australia. He was working on his thesis for his Doctorate in Philosophy when he came home to Sabah to join politics. He eventually obtained his Phd but by the time he was already Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah. Infact, with due respect, very few of Sabah's early Ministers had had the benefit of tertiary education, with the exception of Salleh Sulong and may be just one or two others. The first university in Sabah was only built in the mid-90s after the formation of the present BN government. Nonetheless, graduate or non-graduate, lawyer or no lawyer, young Sabahans of today should appreciate the contributions of our early leaders. It was because of them that we are able to enjoy the fruits of Independence today. Let's not take things for granted and continue to preserve the peace and prosperity that we now have. While tertiary education would certainly help build good leaders, it is not a pre-requisite anywhere in the World including advanced or western countries. President Reagan rose from merely being a film actor to President of the United States, the most powerful country in the World. So did another screen idol, Joseph Estrada of the Philippines.

To tell why Kuala Lumpur encouraged a new party to fight the Alliance and why ministers like Salleh,Harris and Yassin left Usno to be in the oppositon would probably fill an entire book. Over the next few days (or even weeks) I'll try to shed more light. However, if you enlarge the images above you would be able to read some of Berjaya's objectives and why it was formed and some of its accusations against the then state government. It's best that you read it yourselves, rather than I repeat or amplify it, to lessen possibility of me being accused of pro-this or pro-that.

Until then, once again thank you for your patience and Aramaiti!

(Note: Apart from newspapers, I also based my comments on political books on Sabah including The Politics of Federalism - Syed Kechik in East Malaysia by Bruce-Ross Larson, especially the part on power of detention. I was introduced to blogging early July. Although I was ready to launch my blog by the second week, I thought I might as well wait for July 15 so I will have a story to tell and an angle to begin with. Besides, Berjaya won the election in 9 months so I just want to 'tumpang' (share) the good Feng Shui (just kidding) with the hope that my infant blog will succeed, with your support of course.)