By Third Eyed Raven (Majangkim Office)
Kota Kinabalu (Formerly known as Jesselton Town)
The Oracle: On May 29, we assessed that Bersatu was being “devoured from within” by PAS. The June 8 divorce and Hamzah Zainudin’s impending June 13 rebel launch have proven that Peninsular political identities are actively cannibalizing each other.
The Sabah Surrender: In a stunning twist of political survival, West Malaysian heavyweight Pakatan Harapan (PH) in Sabah is abandoning its own iconic logo to contest under the GRS banner—a total capitulation of federal branding.
The Ultimate Loser: Caught in the crossfire is UPKO. Marooned on shaky ground, this former bridge of KDM representation is being ground to dust, foolishly attempting to crawl under a crowded GRS umbrella that offers no real shelter.
The True Fortress: While the official state mechanism dilutes its currency by absorbing federal remnants, the real “Borneo Fortress” is quietly taking shape in the war tents of Warisan and STAR, while PBS gains a strategic advantage by staying completely out of the mess.
I. The Anatomy of a Predicted Devouring
When PAS President Hadi Awang issued his midnight decree on June 8 terminating cooperation with Bersatu, it was treated by Kuala Lumpur pundits as a sudden earthquake. It shouldn’t have been.
The structural reality of the “Malayan Meatgrinder” made this outcome mathematically inevitable.
As we noted last month, the old establishment alliances are bogged down in mud of their own making. PAS moves with the terrifying clarity of a unified command that requires no central treasury; its fuel is pure grassroots faith.
Bersatu was never an equal partner—it was an ideological host body. Now that the host has been thoroughly drained, the Juggernaut has simply discarded the husk to prepare for its final southward push into the urban fringes.
II. The June 13 Schism: Hamzah’s Irregulars
The chaos is amplified by the upcoming June 13 launch of a rival party by Bersatu rebels under Hamzah Zainudin.
This is the exact manifestation of the “multi-cornered slaughter” we warned about.
Instead of a unified opposition taking on the ruling alliance, the Peninsular battlefield has devolved into a bitter, localized turf war over the remnants of the Perikatan Nasional brand. By slicing the conservative Malay electorate into even smaller, hyper-factionalized pieces, these parties are guaranteed to cancel each other out in crucial swing seats, entirely to the benefit of the Green Wave’s monolithic march.
III. The Surrender of the Federal Giants: PH Assimilates into GRS
While the conservative Malay factions are grinding each other into dust on the mainland, the ultimate proof of the “Borneo Fortress” has emerged from an unexpected quarter: Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sabah.
In a desperate bid to maintain a foothold in the upcoming state and general elections, the ruling federal coalition is reportedly ready to shelve its own logo in favor of contesting under the GRS banner.
Let that sink in. The very coalition that holds the Prime Minister’s office in Putrajaya acknowledges that its brand is a liability in the East.
This is the absolute validation of our battlefield assessment. Just as Bersatu served as an ideological host body for PAS until it was drained, federal PH in Sabah is willingly allowing itself to be absorbed by Hajiji Noor’s local mechanism. It is a survival reflex.
They know that in the post-divorce landscape, raw Bornean regionalism is the only shield capable of withstanding the incoming chaotic tide from the Peninsula.
IV. The Sacrificial Freys: UPKO’s Final Dead End
But a shield for the giants offers no protection for the foot soldiers. The absolute loser in all of these shifting tectonic plates is UPKO—the political “Freys” of the Sabah landscape.
UPKO’s entire modern branding was built on being the sophisticated, local vanguard for Pakatan Harapan in Sabah. They traded pure regional autonomy for a seat at the federal reformist table. Now, with PH ditching its own banner to merge into GRS, UPKO finds itself standing on rapidly liquefying soil.
Applying for GRS membership now would be UPKO’s ultimate act of political submission—and a fatal ideological contradiction. You cannot spend years campaigning to your grassroots base as an alternative to the state establishment, only to knock on that same establishment’s door begging for shelter when the weather turns rough.
By attempting to crawl into an already overcrowded house guarded by its historic rivals, UPKO is choosing slow assimilation and eventual erasure.
They should never have applied. They are an island being eroded by the tide, discovering too late that in a crowded house, latecomers are the first to be thrown to the wolves.
V. The Real Borneo Fortress: The Warisan-STAR Axis
While the official state leadership dilutes its local potency by playing landlord to fleeing West Malaysian parties, the real Borneo Fortress is being forged elsewhere.
Look away from the government buildings and look toward the Keningau war tent.
The highly calculated “Kaamatan handshake” between Parti Warisan president Shafie Apdal and Sabah STAR president Jeffrey Kitingan was the true opening salvo of the upcoming campaign. This is where the real iron lies.
Unlike GRS, which is compromising its regional purity to accommodate federal refugees, a potential Warisan-STAR axis represents the unadulterated, raw power of Sabah regionalism.
By bridging Warisan’s formidable coastal machinery with STAR’s deep-rooted influence in the Kadazandusun-Murut (KDM) heartland, this alliance bypasses the compromised federal brokers entirely.
It sends a shivering warning shot across the bow of the entire political establishment: The true defense of the East will not be negotiated through proxy federal logos. It will be dictated by those who hold the soil.
VI. PBS: The Advantage of Staying Out
Concurrently, look at the quiet discipline of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS). While other parties are tearing themselves apart in public feuds or allowing their identity to be swallowed up by fleeing federal entities, PBS has wisely chosen to stay completely out of the fray. This strategic isolation is their greatest strength.
Instead of panic-buying a seat in an overcrowded, compromised coalition, PBS is quietly reinforcing its foundations from within. The decision by veteran kingmaker Yee Moh Chai to step back and hand over his 40-year-old port to his daughter is a masterclass in clean, bloodless generational fortification.
They are refreshing their leadership grid without triggering an internal civil war or begging a federal landlord for space. In the unforgiving ecosystem of the “meatgrinder,” this discipline gives PBS a distinct structural advantage.
When the multi-cornered slaughter begins, a generationally renewed, uncompromised PBS will stand as a rock of institutional continuity—leaving a drifting STAR to play its volatile proxy games and a marooned UPKO to face its inevitable end.
Conclusion: The Audition at the Gates
The PAS-Bersatu divorce has shattered the Peninsular opposition, while the PH-GRS logo shift has exposed the desperation of federal influence in the East.
When the survivors of the mainland slaughter finally arrive at our gates to negotiate a federal government ahead of 2028, they will not be dealing with a compliant, federalized local coalition. UPKO’s shaky ground will have given way. Instead, they will face the unyielding wall of the real Borneo Fortress—a hardened, pragmatic Warisan-STAR axis backed by a renewed PBS.
The price of entry into Putrajaya has just gone up.
It will not be negotiated in the hallways of Kuala Lumpur; it will be paid strictly on the terms laid down by the true gatekeepers of Jesselton.
