The Barisan Nasional (BN) won the Sabah state election of 12-13 March. This was the BN's first victory in 15 years. Now, unlike in 1994, the BN can claim the right to form the state government until the next election.
Yet, while the BN leaders and supporters may revel in their victory, other more fair-minded Malaysians would ask if the triumph was not obtained at considerable cost to the Malaysian nation.
Despite the BN's winning 31 of the 48 contested seats in the Dewan Undangan Negeri (State Assembly), its victory was not easy. The BN campaign required the resources of the entire Cabinet, the Federal Government and the various State governments. It required the full might of the BN machinery and the 'official' presence of thousands of government officers, and droves of the BN's component party leaders and functionaries for the BN to defeat a mere state-based party, the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS).
It appeared that the BN needed a sledgehammer to defeat a small, local, party that had been the target of various forms of Federal Government harassment.
The Prime Minister had to campaign lengthily in Sabah, and visited the state several times before and during the election campaign period. For almost the entire duration of the election campaign, the Deputy Prime Minister, also the Home Affairs Minister, was 'away from home' in Sabah. In addition, Cabinet ministers, menteri-menteri besar, chief ministers and most state executive councillors from BN state governments unabashedly made their way into Sabah, mostly on some form of 'official duty' or other.
Needless to say, the official and mainstream mass media was shamelessly partisan in their coverage of the election. In most instances it was nothing more than the mouthpiece of the BN as its leaders and candidates made numerous threats and endless promises.
All this and more were necessary. Critically, the BN resorted to a blatantly unfair exercise in constituency re-delineation and unethical but ethnically determined gerrymandering to tip the scales against the PBS for the first time in 15 years.
No doubt many BN leaders and their partisans will dismiss such criticisms as nothing but expressions of 'sour grapes'. But the truth is that in winning the way it did in Sabah the BN will face the acid test of democracy in Sabah over the next few years.
On the one hand, the BN will be hard put to honour its election promises of hundreds of millions of ringgit of projects in the years to come. Those were mostly on-the-spot promises recklessly made without regard to the state of the economy, and the budgetary restraints already officially adopted since the end of 1997.
On the other hand, Malaysians - especially the Sabah voters who exercised their right to vote for opposition parties - will be anxiously watching to see if the BN will likewise live by its wholly undemocratic threats to penalise, punish and deny 'development' to the 17 PBS-held constituencies.
Let the Federal Government, the new Sabah government, and the BN in general not forget that despite its overwhelming advantages and despite winning 31 seats, the BN could only secure 46 per cent of the popular vote.
Let them remember that the PBS, disadvantaged at every point and winning only 17 seats, nonetheless obtained 41 per cent of the popular vote.
Before all Malaysians put the Sabah election behind them, and look to the next general election, they would do well to ponder if such a huge discrepancy between popular vote and actual representation augurs well for democracy in the whole of Malaysia.
