AND since we have been talking about Sabah, let’s zoom in and shed some light on Sabah’s politics, which saw dramatic developments in recent days.
In the larger Malaysian political scene, Sabah has always been a maverick state. While Malaysian politics at the federal level has seen only one ruling coalition (Barisan Nasional, or BN, albeit in various manifestations) from the country’s formation in 1963 until the watershed general election which ushered in the previously opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration in 2018, Sabah has changed its state governments numerous times over the years. There are those Sabahans who would like to go their own way and become an independent country of North Borneo, belonging neither to Malaysia nor the Philippines. But the fate of history landed Sabah into becoming a part of Malaysia, so it is just a fact that Sabahans have to deal with, though harping from time to time for a higher degree of autonomy.
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