GRS to break apart after State Assembly is dissolved

By Datuk Raymond Tombung, 21-9-2025

GRS leaders and members, soon to split into rivals, spurred by the groundswell of anti-Malayan sentiment.

The clock keeps ticking toward the dissolution of the Sabah State Legislative Assembly, and with it arises a question that has lingered since Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) seized power in 2020: “Can this fragile coalition survive another election?” The most likely answer is: “No!”

Once the Assembly is dissolved, the forces holding GRS together will likely fracture, giving way to rivalry and fierce competition among its component parties. More importantly, Sabahans are now engulfed in a new political fire — an explosive resentment against Malayan parties — and GRS has visibly has not fully embodied this sentiment in its policies and struggles.

A Coalition of Convenience, Not Conviction

GRS has never been strongly built upon shared ideology or a long-term vision for Sabah. It was born out of desperation — an alliance of STAR, PBS, SAPP, and Sabah Bersatu — with a singular mission at that time: to topple Warisan and form a government. Over the past five years, especially after Bersatu was abandoned and replaced by Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (Gagasan), GRS has functioned more like a temporary caretaker bloc rather than a force with a clear direction — despite its “Sabah Maju Jaya” slogan. With dissolution looming, the glue binding GRS together is weakening, and the coalition will then may collapse under its own contradictions.

The Battle for Seats

The first cracks are expected to appear in the fight for seats. STAR, PBS and SAPP are already eyeing overlapping constituencies — across Kadazan-Dusun, Murut, Bajau, and Chinese-majority areas. Once the Assembly is dissolved, the bigger parties  will not be willing to surrender its traditional turf. Several rounds of negotiations have already exposed tension, with STAR, for example, asking more seats than offered. This sets the stage for open conflict, as component parties transform into competitors battling for their own political survival.

Loosening Ties with Malaya

Previously, GRS relied on Sabah Bersatu’s presence and its connection to Putrajaya as pillars of stability.

That lifeline has loosened. Sabah Bersatu abandoned and replaced by  locally-minted Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (PGRS), while Bersatu at the national level is itself mired in leadership struggles. GRS’s new connection, Pakataan Harapan (PH), is also entangled in leadership crises in Kuala Lumpur. This casts doubt on GRS’s lifeline to PH — especially as PH faces mounting rejection nationwide, while anti-Malayan sentiment swells across Sabah.

What remains within GRS today is a loose cluster of local parties with diverging or even opposing ambitions, drifting into an election where some of its components are redefining their identity and struggle amid the rallying cries of “Sabah for Sabahans!”, “Sabah First!”, “Our Home, We Protect!”, and “Reject Malayan Parties!”

The Ambition for the Chief Minister’s Seat

Politics in Sabah has long been driven by personal ambition to crown a leader. While Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor currently holds the top office, other parties may have long harboured their own ambitions.

When dissolution comes, these ambitions are likely to clash openly, making it difficult for GRS to project a unified choice for Chief Minister. Will this scramble for Sabah’s top seat mark the beginning of an open public  breakup?

The Surge of Anti-Malayan Sentiment in Sabah

What makes this moment unique in Sabah’s political history is the sheer force of anti-Malayan sentiment now burning in the hearts of its people. For decades, Sabah has lived under federal dominance — policies dictated from Putrajaya, state revenues drained to the Peninsula, and the promises of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 either neglected or endlessly postponed.

Today, that patience has run out. In towns, villages, and coffee shops, the message is clear: Sabahans no longer wish to be treated as second-class partners in their own federation. This resentment has become a tidal wave, with many now openly demanding that Sabah’s future be freed entirely from Malayan interference.

This wave of anger is not mere rhetoric. It is Sabah’s political reality in 2025. And this is the reality that GRS struggles to bear. Though labelled a local coalition, GRS remains tethered — by history and perception — to Malayan politics. Its cooperation agreement with PH (and the PH-BN arrangement to avoid clashes in GE17) only reinforces public suspicion that GRS is extending the very system Sabahans despise and want to break away from.

A Familiar Pattern in Sabah Politics

Sabah’s political history is littered with coalitions that rose suddenly and fell just as quickly. Berjaya, PBS, Barisan Nasional, and now GRS — all emerged promising stability, yet collapsed once greed for power and betrayal set in. GRS is accused of the same weakness. With dissolution, its components may abandon the pretense of unity and return to their original nature — as rivals against one another!

Sabahans are no longer satisfied with coalitions that depend on federal goodwill. They demand a new political order — one that rejects dependence on Malaya, restores dignity by honouring MA63, and boldly asserts that Sabah’s future must be determined by Sabahans themselves.

When the Assembly is dissolved, if the potential collapse of GRS happens, it will not merely mark the end of a coalition. It will signal the dawn of a new political era — an era where the fiery call to break free from Malayan domination becomes the rallying cry uniting Sabahans. There is every possibility this shift will be historic, etched permanently in the pages of the state’s political journey—just like the fall of USNO and Berjaya.#~Borneo Herald™