The Sabah elections will be held on November 29th, with nominations on Nov 15th, and early voting November 25th. With recent graft whistleblower videos and corruption allegations, Sabah’s politics face yet another credibility test at the hands of the electorate. On this episode of #ConsiderThis Melisa Idris speaks with Fiqah Roslan, BERSIH’s Regional Vice Chair for Sabah.
00:00Hello and good evening. I'm Melissa Idris. Welcome to Consider This. This is the show
00:14where we want you to consider and then reconsider what you know of the news of the day. The
00:19summer elections will be held on November 29th with nominations on November 15th and
00:25early voting November 25th. Now with recent graft whistleblower videos and corruption
00:32allegations, Sabah's politics face yet another credibility test at the hands of the electorate.
00:40What do they need to know? Joining me now on the show is Fika Roslan, Burses Regional Vice Chair
00:46for Sabah. Fika, welcome back to the show. It's good to have you on. The dates have just been
00:52announced by the Election Commission. I'm just wondering what role Burses will be playing
00:56in the lead up to this election and during as well as beyond? Yes, so in the lead up to the election,
01:03we have launched our Pemantau program and so that one obviously is more
01:10monitoring the election as it happens on the day but leading up to it, we're also looking to enhance
01:17media monitoring, paying closer attention to the social media pages of candidates, big political figures
01:24and warlords especially, but also mainstream media as in the news, mainstream news as well as social media
01:31as we know now probably there are so many of these information update accounts popping up on social media
01:39and so just getting a sense of what their narrative is, what are they quote-unquote reporting on
01:45and what the general sentiment is among people who consume this information.
01:51Okay, let's break that down a little bit. So with the media monitoring and you said you're also going
01:57to be monitoring social media, what are you watching out for? What are the concerns in terms of
02:04paying close attention to the narrative online? Yes, so very much guided by the Elections Commission Act
02:14whether there are racial narratives, religious narratives, that sort of thing and in Sabah especially
02:22we might already be very familiar with the anti-PTI sentiment, so those kinds of things but also if
02:33state resources are misappropriated. Yeah, and especially kind of what the sentiment is around corruption
02:46especially with those series of graft videos and exposures, the whistleblower videos that have surfaced.
02:54Right, and what is your sense, if I may ask, what is your sense of right now in the lead up to the Elections
03:01the sentiment on the ground? Particularly how are people responding to every time a new graft video
03:08comes out? What has been their response, particularly based on your observation, Vika?
03:13Yeah, so it's the usual frustration at the same time I think a lot of people are also not surprised by
03:21these things anymore, which honestly is very disheartening because then that is an indication that
03:27oh okay these are, it's the norm almost. However, I will say
03:40questions around good governance, transparency, I think have blown up quite a bit especially with the Zahra Kairina case
03:48that's received the kind of response that honestly I've never quite seen with a case like that and I think
04:01that's brought on a lot of scrutiny to our governance processes and especially in the civil service.
04:07Okay, well what kind of response, can you explain particularly, how would you describe the response?
04:14I was going to ask you whether Zahra's case is resonating amongst people but what kind of feelings
04:20is it bringing up? What is it, why is it resonating so deeply on the ground and is it going to create a
04:28groundswell that politicians should pay attention to?
04:31Yeah, absolutely. So again, it's calling into question issues around good governance
04:41and transparency, anti-corruption in the civil service. I think, well what's interesting to me
04:48about this and not to seem glib or discounted at all, the severity of the case is that I think it's
04:57shedding a light on corruption from a kind of different angle. So a concern for me and I believe
05:05a concern for Bursi as well is that people may not realize how deep corruption is entrenched in the
05:12system and how far it goes. So many instances of corruption are not the typical kind of or as obvious
05:21as money exchanging hands for example. And if I might segue to kind of another dimension or facet of corruption
05:33that's emerging in terms of politics is candidates who are positioning themselves as power brokers. So these are
05:41smaller parties, independent candidates who are aiming to win seats with no real interest in forming government
05:49necessarily but rather interest in becoming king makers, power brokers. So helping the larger parties become winners
05:59and choosing the chief minister and so this independent kind of movement or group that's now being dubbed the black wave.
06:09Oh, tell me more about that. Why is that an area of concern for Bursi? What power or risks do these so-called king makers have for the future of good governance in Sabah?
06:25Right. So they can be seen as vote splitters while saying their aim is to become power brokers and quite transparently so. And so I think the question for us is whether or not this action is ethical.
06:37Because I mean just if I were to look at it and I might not implicate Bursi in this, but just on a personal standpoint, so much of the vested interest in is personal power and personal advantages.
06:59But it's not necessarily advancing people's aspirations, advancing or advocating for better policies. It's leveraging on their positionality as smaller parties, smaller candidates, but knowing that with the way politics is going in Sabah and I think nationally as well,
07:25no one or two parties even are able to form a government. And so these smaller parties and independent groups are aware of this.
07:37And so that to me is the question of whether or not that is ethical.
07:41Right. So the power dynamics on the ground is also what you will be watching out for.
07:47Can I ask you how much MA63 is resonating on the ground? I mean, we had the recent 40% revenue ruling.
07:56Is that resonating? Is that something that voters are taking into consideration or political parties are maybe using in terms of leverage during these elections?
08:07Yeah, it is definitely a narrative tool in terms of how far or how much it's resonating in the wider public.
08:19So much of conversation around MA63 is almost is almost elitist or inaccessible to a lot of people.
08:30I think just in the way it's discussed in that is very much entrenched in political undertones or that it's a very high level academic subject.
08:42And so I'm really big fans of Irwan Idris who does a lot of these.
08:49They just want to make the conversation more accessible that everybody can talk about it.
08:54How much will it sort of influence or weigh on voter sentiment or how how people might vote?
09:09I mean, I have to say there is a large sense of just fatigue that so much of it is lip service or so much of it is narrative, but no real people are not seeing real results or gains necessarily from from this whole campaign.
09:38Right.
09:39Well, what is your message then to Sabah voters ahead of polling day?
09:43What should they be vigilant about?
09:45What should they be mindful of?
09:47And what how can they support Bursae in ensuring clean, fair elections?
09:54I would really say to be very cognizant that our vote has a value and to come back to what values we hold personally as people as Sabahans and what values are important to us for Sabah.
10:17And so rejecting money politics totally.
10:22I mean, the narrative before this was OK, maybe you take the money, but you vote however you want to vote.
10:27But we're saying, what if we stop doing that completely and have a critical mass enough to have a paradigm shift that we're not buying votes anymore?
10:39And just really holding the dignity of Sabah very closely to our hearts.
10:48At least I am.
10:49And really just asking ourselves, what do we actually want for Sabah?
10:54Not just in our lifetime, but but for generations to come.
10:58What are the values that are important to us?
11:01Have you thought about the answer to that question?
11:04What is it that you want for Sabah for yourself and for for the future?
11:09Yeah, as far as value goes for me, what's really important is responsibility, responsibility as a Sabahan responsibility to the state.
11:18And just just on a very deep personal level, love and care for the state for this land and reciprocity to me Sabah is my home.
11:32This land has given me so much it's taken care of me.
11:36The least I can do is reciprocate and and to really just in to the best of my ability stand for the dignity of my home.
11:49Vika, I remember in the last Sabah election or post Sabah elections, you wrote a chapter in the book Sabah on the ground and you wrote and you wrote about and you co-wrote about youth participation or youth action in the Sabah elections.
12:09I mean, some time has passed now from the last elections, but are you seeing the same kind of momentum or fire in young people in Sabah today wanting to be part of the political process, wanting to be part of democracy, but also having certain limitations, certain constraints put upon them?
12:31Yeah, I want to say I'm so proud to see more movements and newer youth movements coming up.
12:42So very close to my heart are the Haimandak group, the UMS students, they are just doing amazing things.
12:53Seen project Sabah coming up with all these informational postings.
13:00So I rest assured that there will always be Sabahans taking on this responsibility and this love for the state.
13:18Um, and, uh, I, I, I really am hoping that it resonates beyond, um, beyond these, uh, these groups, um, on, on the ground, but I think, I think they're doing great work and I think they're reaching, they're reaching people where it met this.
13:39Yeah, they are, they were doing wonderful work and they, uh, I'm so happy that we're going to be speaking to Haimandak, uh, after this interview.
13:48So, um, Fika, thank you so much for your passion and for bringing some insights, uh, into what's happening on the ground to us. We appreciate you and your time. Thank you, Fika.
13:58That was Fika Roslan versus regional vice chair for Sabah.
14:02We're going to take a quick break here and consider this.
Be the first to comment