Aliakbar’s personality, strong grassroots won it for PAS, say analysts

PAS achieved a breakthrough in East Malaysia with Aliakbar Gulasan, but Ronald Kiandee of Perikatan Nasional suffered a setback as voters rejected a "Malayan party".
PETALING JAYA: The historic PAS election victory in Sabah was based on candidate Aliakbar Gulasan's approachable personality and strong mobilisation of grassroots support since 2020, according to political analysts.
The defeat of another opposition candidate, Ronald Kiandee of Perikatan Nasional, was seen as being due to rising "Sabahan First" sentiments. Sabahans were overwhelmingly favouring locally-based parties and rejected Kiandee’s Bersatu, whom they perceived as a Malayan party, said Lee Kuok Tiung of Universiti Malaysia Sabah.
Lee said Aliakbar has been working hard on the ground in the past five years, trying to penetrate the community. "His personality is actually liked by many people, including non-Muslims," Lee said.
The identity politics favoured by PAS might not have been the most important factor that led to Aliakbar’s victory as the state seat has a sizable non-Muslim population, Lee said. "I believe he won because of his character and that Barisan Nasional won the seat in 2020 with only a razor thin 16-vote majority,” he told FMT.
Another analyst, Bilcher Bala of UMS, said the narrow margin of the PAS victory suggested that the party's future in Sabah would depend on whether it can broaden its appeal beyond religious identity and embed itself in local socio-economic issues.
Political observer Johan Ariffin Samad said Aliakbar’s victory was not wholly surprising since he was practically given a foothold in Sabahan politics by being a nominated assemblyman since 2020, which gave him an opportunity to understand the community and begin wooing them.
“If they (PAS) behave properly and don’t play on religious sentiment, they can further themselves. But if he’s playing on the same racial and religious issues like in West Malaysia, then he won’t last long,” he added.
Aliakbar, who is of Pakistani-Murut origin, is a former lecturer with Universiti Malaysia Sabah and holds a doctorate in urban geography. He won the Karambunai seat on Saturday in his maiden election campaign, giving his party a historic breakthrough in East Malaysia.
Kiandee lost to ‘Sabahan first’ sentiments
Lee said the defeat of Sabah Perikatan Nasional chief Ronald Kiandee in Sugut was a result of the growing regionalism sentiments among Sabahans.
He said Sabahans were overwhelmingly favouring locally-based parties and rejected Kiandee’s Bersatu, whom they perceived as a Malayan party.
Kiandee lost to James Ratib of Gabungan Rakyat Sabah. "PN is losing big time," Lee said. "James is very strong in Sugut and Kiandee lost to him before in party elections (when James was in Umno).
“But the strongest factor is the preference for local parties, and this is related to Sabah’s 40% entitlement to revenue rights under the Malaysian Agreement 1963,” Lee said.
Lee also cautioned PN that its poor electoral showing was likely to be repeated in the next general election, with Sabahans apparently wishing to emulate Sarawak, where local politicians play a prominent role at both state and federal levels.
Similarly, Bilcher said the “wipe out” suffered by PN in Sabah demonstrated that voters are prioritising local identity and autonomy.
He said that PN’s inability to translate its momentum as an opposition coalition at the federal level into Sabah politics further underscored the fact that local grievances like infrastructure development, and water and electricity supply dominated electoral discourse.
“Unless PN recalibrates its strategy to integrate local narratives and strengthen grassroots presence, its poor performance is likely to persist into the next GE, reinforcing its image as a coalition with limited resonance outside the peninsula,” he added.
Securing only 1 out of 42 contested, PN shared the dismal fate suffered by its federal opponent Pakatan Harapan, who won only in Melalap.