The rise, fall and rise again of Usno
Published on: Sunday, July 03, 2022
By: Datuk Teddy Chin
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Chief Minister Mustapha (left), sigining a 10-year oil prospecting right to the Teiseki Oil Company in May, 1968.
I say all of a sudden because in the waiting list are three other Sabah political parties – KDM, LDP and PCS. But only Usno was accepted.
KDM is led by former Warisan Minister Datuk Peter Anthony who quit the former ruling party earlier this year. Together with Limbahau’s Datuk Juil Nuatin, this infant party has two Assemblymen.
LDP is led by Datuk Chin Su Phin, a protégé of its former President Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat. Chong, a former Chief Minister for two years under the BN’s rotation system from 2001-03. He was one of its candidates in the 2020 State General Election. He lost, so did all of the other LDP candidates.
PCS is led by former Malaysian Foreign Minister and former Umno MP, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman who just like Chong also lost in the election. So did all the other PCS candidates. Anifah is a brother of former Chief Minister and former Sabah Umno head Tan Sri Musa Aman.
Usno (New or Baru) has since last year been led by former Malaysian Parliament Lower House (Dewan Rakyat) Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Hj Mulia. All of their candidates including Pandikar also lost in the 2020 election.
So, on paper at least, the party that by right should be given the utmost consideration is KDM since it has two Assemblymen compared to LDP, PCS and Usno which have none.
Why Usno and not KDM, LDP and PCS and more recently another new party led by former LDP Minister Tan Sri Liew Yun Fah? Liew’s party also contested some seats in 2020 and all also lost.
The answer can only be given by the Presidents of PBS, Star, SAPP and the Bersatu State chief who is the KL-based Bersatu party’s ‘branch manager’ in Sabah and current CM Hajiji. They gave their nod since it has to be a consensus. I will touch more on this later. First let us go back to Usno.
Usno was founded in 1961 by the charismatic Suluk leader the late Tun Datu Hj Mustapha Datu Harun and its members were mostly Muslim natives of Sabah.
Upko, which was founded more or less the same time as Usno, was led by the late Tun Hj Mohd Fuad Stephens or the former Dato’ Donald Stephens. It drew its support mainly from non-Muslim Sabah natives who were either Christians or pagans.
Sabah the former North Borneo became an Independent nation on its own for a short while (after August 31) before Malaysia officially came into being on 16th September 1963.
The’ spoils’ of Independence was shared between the two early Sabah leaders, with Mustapha becoming the TYT Yang Di-Pertua Negara (Governor) and Stephens the Chief Minister. And the first State Cabinet comprised representatives from both Usno and Upko and the Chinese party. Similarly with the 6 Nominated Assemblymen (Adun Dilantik). Even SIC (Sabah Indian Congress) had a Nominated Assemblyman initially. This was the Alliance Government formed by the Alliance Party comprising Usno, Upko, SIC and the Chinese party.
However, the ‘honeymoon’ was short-lived. It was only a matter of time when the two Tuns began to see things differently. It was said that before long Mustapha realized that the real or executive power lay with the Chief Minister and not the Governor. It was believed that Mustapha had mistakenly thought that the first Sabah Governor had the kind of power that the British Governor before 1963 had.
Things came to a boil and the quarrel became worse as time pased. Among the quarrels was Mustapha wanted someone to be the State Secretary replacing the Orang Putih but Stephens preferred another.
But Mustapha’s trump card was he had the support of then Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman who openly sided with him. On 1st January 1965, barely slightly over a year Stephens was replaced as Chief Minister. He exchanged position with Sabah’s first Federal Minister in Kuala Lumpur, the late Tan Sri (then Dato’) Peter Lo. But Stephens resigned after Singapore was kicked out of Malaysia, saying that Sabah should have been consulted and the Malaysia Agreement reviewed.
Mustapha himself stepped down as Governor on 16th September 1965, exactly two years after assuming the post. He was replaced by the late Tun Pengiran Ahmad Raffae.
So, Stephens resigned as Federal Minister and Mustapha stepped down as Governor in the same year. Both were now free to concentrate on preparations for Sabah’s first direct general election which was finally called in early 1967. The stage was set for the final showdown between the two giants of Sabah politics and the two “Fathers of Sabah’s Independence”.
The State Assembly in 1967 had only 32 seats excluding the 6 Nominated or Appointed. Usno won 14 and Upko 12. So the ‘Kingmaker’ was the Chinese party SCA which won the remaining seats except in Elopura where an Independent defeated the incumbent Chief Minister Peter Lo.
SCA threw its weight behind Usno, enabling it to form the government. Upko was left out in the cold despite the Alliance party still officially existed. Henceforth, the Alliance party which ruled Sabah from 1963 existed in name only.
Soon after that election, an Upko Assemblyman followed by a couple of others crossed over to Usno. Towards the end of 1967, Stephens saw the writing on the wall and he took the drastic step of dissolving Upko and urging its members to support Usno in the name of Bumiputra (Natives) unity.
Sometime later, Stephens was appointed Malaysia’s High Commissioner to Australia. In Sabah’s 2nd general election in 1971, Usno/SCA swept all the 32 seats ‘uncontested’. After which, a few of the former Upko Assemblymen were made Assistant Ministers including the late Datuk Peter Mojuntin and Tan Sri Herman Luping. Both were seen as Stephens’ right hand men.
In September 1973, Stephens replaced Tun Raffae as Governor and therefore became a Tun. He had by then become a Muslim, changing his name from Donald to Fuad.
By early 1975,the then Prime Minister Tun Razak became unhappy with Mustapha and this was an open secret. Kuala Lumpur helped found Parti Berjaya on 15th July 1975. It was led by former Usno Minister Datuk (now Tan Sri) Harris Salleh.
Two weeks later, Stephens stepped down from the Istana to take over Berjaya with Harris becoming his No.2.
Stephens was replaced as Governor by the late Tun Hamdan Abdullah, the successful non-Muslim Usno candidate in Sulaman in 1967. The former OKK Dato’ Indan Kari became Tun Hamdan Abdullah when he became the TYT.
Towards the end of 1975, two by-elections were held in Sabah. Never mind what caused them. To cut the long story short, Berjaya lost both contests to Usno. One of the casualties was Harris himself, in Labuan I think.
This victory of the two by-elections gave Usno confidence and in early 1976 they dissolved the State Assembly for fresh elections. It was a miscalculation on their part. They lost to Berjaya which garnered 28 seats compared to theirs only 20. The Assembly by then had 48 elected seats.
However, by then (dissolution) the Chief Minister was no longer Mustapha who stepped down in October 1975 in favour of his deputy Tan Sri (later Tun) Mohd Said Keruak. However, both Mustapha and Said won in Banggi and Usukan respectively.
Berjaya won again in 1981, this time winning 44 seats. Usno only won 3, with the remaining seat going to a Chinese party in Tawau. Mustapha had taken a back seat in politics by then and Usno went into the battle led by Said.
About a year later in 1982, Said Keruak announced his retirement from politics and threw his weight behind Berjaya. His son Salleh became the Berjaya candidate in the ensuing Usukan by-election but lost to Usno’s Pandikar Amin, a young lawyer.
It was second time lucky for Pandikar as he had months earlier, still on an Usno ticket, lost to a Berjaya-sponsored Independent, Datuk Yahya Lampong in the MP election in Kota Belud. Usukan is part of Kota Belud.
In 1984, the Berjaya State Government led by Harris ceded Labuan to KL to become a Federal Territory. After which, Usno was kicked out of the national ruling coalition BN for protesting the handover of Labuan.
The next State general election was in 1985. This time, the scenario was different in the sense that Berjaya was facing not just Usno but a breakaway faction led by its former Minister Datuk (now Tan Sri) Joseph Pairin Kitingan. The infant PBS led by Pairin, the spiritual leader of the Kadazans, gained 25 seats the magical number needed for a simple majority. The lone Pasok winner in Moyog threw his weight behind PBS, giving it 26 seats.
The incumbent ruling party Berjaya was left with a pitiful 6 seats compared to the 44 it obtained in 1981. Politics….On the contrary, Usno which Berjaya twice defeated came bouncing back with 16 seats. The reason? Tun Mustapha, the Grand Old Man of Sabah politics, was back at the helm. The Tun had not lost his charisma and influence especially among the Muslims.
But it was not plain sailing for PBS although it had the number to form the government on its own. Someone convinced the Old Man to get himself sworn-in as CM at the Istana at midnight before Pairin could do so.
The Old Man was not to blame entirely for he was misled by whoever was scheming the whole thing. The argument was that Usno’s 16 seats plus Berjaya’s 6 would give them 22. Plus 6 Nominated Members would give them 28, more than the minimum 25 required.
The courts later ruled that it doesn’t work that way. You can’t use the 6 Nominated seats to calculate the number of seats you have won or got.
Understandably, Mustapha instigated by the same schemer/s went to court challenging it since he never resigned and asked the court to decide if the Governor had the right to sack the CM instead of asking him to prove his majority in the House.
Between 1985-86, I was a reporter with the Daily Express. In my several interviews with the Tun, he told me how he was misled by certain people who merely wanted to use him to challenge Pairin’s legitimacy as CM. Once the court had decided, those who misled or instigated him distanced themselves from him one by one except for a few loyalists.
In fact, Tun told me many things and mentioned a few names. Some of what he told me was confidential and cannot be published. He also told me how his name was misused when he was still CM and was overseas.
Those days, just the mention of his name was enough to “frighten” people. I realised that the Tun was by then a lonely man, with former Usno loyalist deserting him one by one. He needed someone to talk to and I was one of those “someone”.
- The views expressed here are the views of the writer Datuk Teddy Chin and do not necessarily reflect those of the Daily Express.
- If you have something to share, write to us at: [email protected]
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