A key issue driving Sabahans’ ire is the division of revenue collected from the resource-rich state by the federal government
Joseph Sipalan
South China Morning
12 Nov 2025
Malaysia’s election season kicks into full gear this weekend, with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration forced to juggle national priorities with a push for greater autonomy in Sabah, as “Sabah for Sabahans” sentiment gains momentum in the make-or-break state.
The November 29 election in Sabah, one of two states on Malaysian Borneo, is widely seen as a gauge of Anwar’s popularity beyond his strongholds in the peninsula and a potential indicator of how well he could do in his presumed re-election bid in the next national poll that must be held by early 2028 at the latest.
Nomination day is scheduled for Saturday (last Saturday Nov 15th), when hundreds of prospective candidates are expected to hand in their papers for a shot at winning one of the 73 state seats up for grabs.
But the fight for the hearts and minds of the nearly 1.8 million voters is already well under way, as local parties distance themselves from their larger national peers in a bid to ride the surging pushback against federal control.
The latest issue driving voters’ ire against the federal government was a proposal by the attorney general to appeal against last month’s high court ruling confirming Sabah’s constitutional right to 40 per cent of federal revenue collected from the state.
The revenue share is separate from the federal government’s responsibility to fund development work in the state, according to the court.
Anwar did himself no favours while debating with a voter during a walkabout in Sabah’s capital Kota Kinabalu on Sunday, when he argued that his administration had bundled Sabah’s 40 per cent revenue share into annual development funds doled out by the federal government to the state.
“You speak of obligations, [but] how much we take, you don’t know. How much we give, you don’t know … let’s discuss this properly,” he said in the exchange caught in a viral video clip.
In an apparent attempt to smooth things over, the attorney general’s chambers said on Tuesday that the federal government would abide by the high court’s ruling.
“The federal government will commence the negotiation process with the Sabah state government as soon as possible,” it said in a statement.
It added, however, that it would appeal against several “defects” in the high court’s ruling, including claims that the federal and state governments had abused their powers and abandoned their constitutional duties.
‘Sabah first’
The government’s olive branch seemingly failed to blunt the criticism.
Sabah-based United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (Upko), which quit Anwar’s ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition just hours before the attorney general’s chambers announcement, said that appealing against parts of the high court judgment was as good as appealing against the entire ruling.
The party said this was a clear sign that only local parties “truly understand the pulse, vision and hopes for Sabah’s future”.
“The time has come for Sabah’s people to choose local parties that are principled to lead the Sabah government and push the Sabah first agenda effectively,” said Upko’s president, Ewon Benedick, who on Monday quit Anwar’s cabinet over the revenue issue.
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| Upko’s president, Ewon Benedick, quit Anwar’s cabinet over the revenue-sharing issue. |
Sabahans have for decades felt short-changed by national leaders. They accuse the federal government of siphoning off the state’s vast resources like timber and petroleum to fund development in the peninsula, while they continue to languish with decrepit infrastructure and one of the lowest income rates in the country.
Observers expect Anwar’s PH to face a tough time in the coming election, with a revolt brewing in its core support bases of ethnic Chinese voters and the Kadazandusun-Murut, the state’s largest ethnic grouping.
“The latest sentiments are not against Anwar per se, but against any political set up that is federal in nature. And Anwar happens to be the [prime minister],” said Oh Ei Sun, principal adviser with the Pacific Research Centre, a Kuala Lumpur-based think tank.
While the withdrawal of Upko from PH was likely to have some effect on the political calculus for the state election, the impact was limited given the fact that Upko was just one out of over a dozen political parties that had thrown their hats into the ring, political analyst Arnold Puyok said.
This provided national outfits like PH some space to work the ground and try to tone down anti-federal sentiments, which he said often coincided with state elections.
However, if “key local-based parties decide to combine forces, that I think will make a lot of difference”, said Puyok, a visiting senior fellow with the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Joseph Sipalan has done extensive reporting of Malaysia, specialising in politics and more recently macro-economics. An alumnus of Reuters and several major Malaysian news
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