Ethnic politics has been an important feature of Malaysia’s
political life since even before its formation in 1963. Despite
being part of Malaysia, however, the East Malaysia state of Sabah
historically was devoid of such politics. But since the formation
of Malaysia, there has been a long decline in ethnic tolerance
and harmony in Sabah due to the federal elite’s success in
expanding ethnic politics there. This thesis investigates the
following questions: How did the governing elites in Kuala Lumpur
successfully expand ethnic politics to Sabah? Why was it
important for the governing politicians to expand such politics
to the periphery state? Why did the public allow this to happen?
By carrying out in-depth ethnohistorical investigation into the
role played by governing federal politicians in generating
ethnicity in Sabah’s politics, this thesis notes how ethnic
politics can be developed, escalated and diffused. It describes
how the federal political elite’s decision to export West
Malaysia’s model of ethnic based coalition government
eventually established ethnicity as a feature of Sabah politics
due to competition and collaboration between federal and local
political elites, and competition between local politicians who
elicited responses along ethno-religious lines from the public.
For their part the people of Sabah came to accept the expansion
there of ethnic politics and its principles of consociational
democracy under pressure from the federal elite.
From a policy perspective, the findings suggest that abandoning
ethnic-based democracy and policies is crucial in providing more
universal benefits to the citizenry and preventing full-fledged
conflict within an ethnically and religiously diverse
population
