Thursday, 23 October 2025
"His playbook is very cunning.
He calls for unity — but his real intent is to use that message to divide the KDMR further, to draw them under his influence and serve his political agenda."
A recent video of Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal has gone viral, where he claimed that the Kadazan-Dusun-Murut-Rungus (KDMR) community remains the poorest group because they are not united.
At first glance, it sounded like a moral lesson — perhaps even a call for introspection. But for those who remember history, the statement drips with irony and political cunning.
Because if there is anyone who knows how the KDMR became divided — and who benefited from it — it is Shafie Apdal himself.
He may not have engineered the disunity, but he was part of the system that caused it, and for years, he benefited from the political fractures that weakened Sabah’s unity.
1️⃣ 1994 — The Year Everything Changed
To understand this issue, we must go back to 1994 — the year UMNO planted its flag on Sabah’s shores.
That same year, Shafie Apdal joined UMNO. Not by coincidence — but by opportunity.
Before 1994, Sabah was under Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), led by Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan.
PBS stood tall against the political dominance of Kuala Lumpur, championing Sabah’s rights, autonomy, and dignity within the federation.
But PBS’s courage angered the federal powers.
The goal in Kuala Lumpur then was simple: remove PBS and install a government that would take orders, not make demands.
PBS narrowly won the 1994 state election, but its victory was stolen within weeks.
Elected assemblymen were coaxed, pressured, or bribed into defecting. By the end of the year, a democratically elected government was toppled — not by the people, but by betrayal.
And among those who rose in the aftermath was Shafie Apdal, a rising star in UMNO’s new Sabah chapter.
2️⃣ The System of Division
UMNO’s arrival in Sabah came wrapped in the promise of “unity.” But beneath that slogan was an age-old tactic — divide and rule.
The once-unified KDMR voice under PBS was systematically fractured into smaller factions, splinter parties, and proxy movements — all claiming to represent “Sabah’s interests” but serving to dilute its collective strength.
During this time, Shafie Apdal rose through the ranks of the same system that thrived on these divisions.
He became a federal minister, then UMNO Vice President, serving a party that had turned Sabah’s diversity into political leverage.
While the KDMR and other Sabahan communities lost political cohesion, the system Shafie served gained everything — control, wealth, and dominance.
3️⃣ The Cost of Betrayal
The fall of PBS in 1994 was not just a political event — it was a turning point in Sabah’s history.
Since then, the state has struggled to reclaim its political footing and financial rights.
Sabah’s vast resources — oil, gas, timber, and minerals — continued to flow out of the state, while its people remained among the poorest in the nation. The KDMR community, once politically powerful and united, became fragmented and sidelined.
This was not accidental. It was the byproduct of a political system built to ensure that no single local force in Sabah could stand independent of federal control.
And that was the system Shafie Apdal helped sustain for over two decades.
4️⃣ His Cunning Playbook: Using “Unity” to Divide
Today, Shafie Apdal speaks of “unity.”
But those who study politics know better — this is not a message of reconciliation; it is a strategic performance.
His playbook is very cunning.
He calls for unity — but his real intent is to use that message to divide the KDMR further, to draw them under his influence and serve his political agenda.
By framing the KDMR as “poor because they are not united,” he paints himself as the only leader capable of “uniting” them.
It’s a familiar tactic — one used many times before by those who claim to “save Sabah,” but in reality, only seek to control it.
Sabah has seen this script before.
The faces change, but the formula remains the same — divide the people, then promise to reunite them under your banner.
5️⃣ History Cannot Be Erased
To the younger generation who may not remember: Sabah once had a government — PBS — that stood for its rights. It was overthrown not by the ballot box, but by betrayal and manipulation.
UMNO did not come to unite Sabah; it came to conquer it. And Shafie Apdal was part of the machine that made it possible.
Now, as he speaks of unity, let us not forget the cost of believing such promises in the past.
📣 True Unity Begins with Truth
True unity cannot come from those who use unity as a political weapon.
It must come from leaders who stand for justice, truth, and autonomy — not those who twist the past for personal gain.
Sabahans must remember that unity without sincerity is manipulation.
And history has shown us what happens when we mistake ambition for leadership.
Sabah belongs to Sabahans.
Justice for Sabah. Autonomy for Sabah.
