December 24, 2024
KUALA LUMPUR – Everyone is waiting to see what an old name in a new position of power will do in the Land Below the Wind.
THE triumphant return of Tun Musa Aman at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport on Wednesday was one of the most watched political moments in Sabah for 2024.
The day before, the King of Malaysia, His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, presented Musa with the instrument of appointment at a ceremony at Istana Negara. On Jan 1, Musa will be the 11th Yang Dipertua Negeri of Sabah, the Tuan Yang Terutama (TYT).
Team Musa had galvanised a big crowd to greet him at the airport. My political friends texted me to tell me who all was at the airport. The more interesting list was who was not at the airport or at Istana Negara the day before for the handing over of the letter of appointment.
They noted that Y had greeted Musa warmly. “Y pandai merendah diri untuk dapatkan sesuatu (Y is clever at being humble to get something),” an Umno warlord told me.
The warlord also told me that his party president, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, was not present at the Istana but sent a representative, Kimanis MP and deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Muhammad Alamin.
“Zahid didn’t attend as he said he had another engagement,” the warlord said when answering my question about whether, with this shift of power in Sabah, state Umno chief Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin will be replaced. “The power to retain the Sabah Umno chief position lies with the president.”
Musa’s return to power sent shivers down the spine of some politicians who have made themselves his eternal political enemies.
“Q said he needs to win 37 seats [out of the 73 in the state assembly] to be sworn in as chief minister,” the Umno warlord told me.
There is no prize for guessing who will swear in the chief minister. And Q and his leaders and supporters have been bombarding chat groups and social media platforms with a hate campaign against the incoming TYT.
The campaign is a manifestation of their fear of Musa’s shadow. As the longest-serving Sabah chief minister, in power from 2003 to 2018, the 73-year-old former Sungai Sibuga assemblyman has cast a long shadow over state politics. His political enemies have experienced how Musa crushed them politically when he was in power.
The big questions in Sabah now are: What kind of TYT will Musa be? And will his appointment change the political dynamics in the state?
I’d like to remind readers of what I wrote in the “New centre of power in Sabah?” column in March this year: Sabah politics has three main power bases: the chief minister’s office, the Istana (ie, the TYT), and the state secretary (ie a civil servant). In Sabah’s political history, there have been times when the Istana trumped the CM’s office (or the incoming elected CM).
As a journalist covering the Wild, Wild East politics since 1994, I have witnessed some historic power tussles. As a rookie journalist, I saw Sabah’s then chief minister, Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, waiting in a vehicle for 36 hours outside the Istana in Kota Kinabalu in 1994. His party, PBS, had won 25 seats against Barisan Nasional’s 23 that night. The then TYT made him wait to be sworn in as Sabah’s CM, a post Pairin had held since 1985. Eventually, Pairin’s government collapsed after several PBS assemblymen defected.
I also covered the political drama in 2018 when Barisan, which had ruled Sabah since 1994, won 29 seats, Parti Warisan and Pakatan Harapan also won 29, and Sabah Star got a hold of two seats. Sabah Star, under president Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, sided with Barisan, and at midnight, currently outgoing TYT, Tun Juhar Mahiruddin, swore in Musa as CM.
In the next few hours, some Barisan assemblymen defected to support Warisan and Pakatan, which held the Federal Government under then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Two days later, Juhar “sacked” Musa as CM in a case that was challenged in court, and appointed Warisan president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal as chief minister. Musa’s legal team has argued that the TYT can appoint the CM but not sack him.
Back to the present: Different politicians have different predictions about what kind of TYT Musa will be.
“He will be the right TYT as he will be firm about Sabah rights,” a Gabungan Rakyat Sabah politician told me a month before it was announced that Musa would be governor.
“Habis la Q dan V (Q and V will be finished),” the Umno warlord told me.
The list of worried politicians could be rather long. The Barisan assemblyman who escaped Sri Gaya (the chief minister’s official residence) to switch his support from Musa to Shafie might be worried about what he did last summer (ie 2018).
One of the Enam Jahanam (loosely translated as Six Devils) is probably rueing his actions during the Sungai Sibuga election in 2018.
“It is V for Vendetta,” a cynical politician messaged me.
A veteran politician told me that Musa, who knows how to wield power, has mellowed. “He is a changed man, especially after the death of a close family member,” he told me.
“Redemption,” a Sabah filmmaker told me when we discussed the narrative for the incoming TYT.
That is the same word used during an intense chat with a political analyst about whether Musa will change the political dynamics in Sabah.
“It is his chance to change his narrative. Sabahans will watch what he does in the next few months after becoming TYT. Will he interfere? Or will he be the TYT who will win the hearts of Sabahans in his second chance at being in a powerful position,” the analyst mused.
Redemption is such a powerful political narrative.