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Keeping this oil-rich region happy is a challenge for Najib

Bloomberg Published on Wed, Aug 02, 2017 / 3:48 PM GMT+8

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(Aug 2): If anyone can break Prime Minister Najib Razak’s stranglehold on Sabah, the Borneo state that holds the key to power in Malaysia, it should be Shafie Apdal.

Shafie’s roots in Sabah run deep. He is the nephew of a former chief minister, and rose from the local branch of Najib’s United Malays National Organisation to become the first national vice president from the state. When Najib dumped him from the cabinet in 2015 amid a dispute over a troubled state fund, Shafie, 59, set up his own party based in Sabah.

“There is no path to victory for the Malaysian opposition that doesn’t go through Sabah,’’ Rosman Abin, youth chief for Shafie’s new party Warisan, said before a recent party event in the state. “We can’t win without a strong showing here.’’