ABSTRACT
In terms of history, culture and demography, there was nothing in common between the peoples of the Malayan peninsula and Borneo, other than that all were once part of the British Empire. When Malaysia was established as the successor state to the peninsular Federation of Malaya in 1963, Sabah and Sarawak (which together comprise East Malaysia) were included to ensure that the total bumiputera population of the new federation would be numerically superior to that of non-bumiputera. 1 This chapter reviews political developments in Sabah and Sarawak since independence and argues that the common theme since independence has been an attempt to export the Barisan Nasional (BN)/United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) model of government to East Malaysia. The model is essentially based on a Muslim-led coalition government with Ketuanan Melayu (Malay Supremacy), and in more recent times, Ketuanan Islam (Muslim Supremacy), as its ideological core. After half a century of independence in the Malaysian federation, the indigenous non-Muslim bumiputera in both Sabah and Sarawak, who led their respective states at the time of independence, are politically marginalised, with little hope of getting back into power.
