By Remy Majangkim
KOTA KINABALU: There is a quiet, frustrating tragedy unfolding across northern Sabah. In the dusty, winding roads of Kota Marudu and the vast coastal stretches of Kudat, voters have long searched for a genuine alternative to the federal apparatus.
When local leaders like Datuk Wetrom Bahanda and Dato’ Verdon Bahanda emerged, they offered a glimmer of hope: a distinct, uncompromised regional voice that answered directly to the grassroots rather than the political headquarters of Putrajaya.
Yet, as the political tides shift, the familiar machinery of Barisan Nasional (BN) once again reaches outward. Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s recent posturing in Matunggong calling on constituents to embrace the “blue wave” and hinting that the brothers have had “blue hearts” all along is a well-worn playbook.
It is the classic maneuver of a peninsula-centric power: allow local champions to harvest grassroots trust, only to co-opt them back into the fold when national electoral math demands it.
For many Sabahans, this is not a pragmatic political realignment; it is a step backward.
The legacy of BN and UMNO is deeply intertwined with central dominance, policy missteps, and financial mismanagement.
One only needs to look at the daily predicament on the ground such as the federal rollout of initiatives like BUDI MADANI diesel subsidies, where local transport operators and rural drivers face long lines at the pump as they exhaust their quota to see how top-down policies fail to fit Sabah’s geographic realities.
Combined with the massive bailouts and debt obligations left behind by national-level scandals, from 1MDB to Tabung Haji, these serve as stark reminders of how central oversight repeatedly fails the public trust.
This cycle will only break when Sabahans make a definitive stand to stick exclusively to local parties and enforce the wall of our regional fortress.
The push for self-determination and the restoration of Sabah’s rights under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) cannot be realized through West Malaysian proxy platforms.
Encouragingly, fresh discussions have begun around uniting regional forces like Warisan, STAR, and KDM for GE16 a necessary alignment driven by the goal of ensuring all 25 parliamentary seats in Sabah are championed by local homegrown platforms rather than surrendered to Peninsular dominance.
The walls of the Borneo Fortress must be built on this exact brand of local solidarity a firm line that prevents Peninsular parties from dictating our future or treating our constituencies as mere tally marks for federal power struggles.
Sabah’s future cannot be continuously traded for project allocations and federal concessions.
The regional push for autonomy is not merely a bargaining chip to be exchanged for seat agreements; it is an assertion of local dignity and genuine political self-determination.
If local leaders continue to surrender their independent standing to fuel national political machines, the real loss will not belong to the parties in Putrajaya.
It will belong to the people of Kota Marudu, Kudat, and the whole of Sabah, who deserve champions standing firmly on their own two feet, keeping the fortress intact, and refusing to bow to the old guard.
