Sabahan politics

Malaysiakini - Trump’s triumph recalls end of Berjaya era in Sabah as told by MKINI reader MariKitaUbah.

MariKitaUbah: The Democratic camp of Hillary Clinton was too complacent and was over-confident. They were ready to celebrate the ‘victory’.

I recall what happened in Sabah during the Berjaya era. On election night, Haris Salleh, the incumbent CM and president of the Berjaya party, and his supporters were all at his official residence to enjoy the night with drinks and a barbeque.

PBS won the elections, which was unprecedented. Berjaya supporters could not believe their eyes. Apparently, it was the biggest upset in the history of Malaysia.

My Uncle continued the above story by MariKitaUbah.

As MariKitaUbah had written, yes indeed that on election night, Haris Salleh held an evening get-together at his official residence in anticipation of celebrating his party's (Berjaya) victory. As usual, his party were replete with ample food and drinks and a barbeque, though he personally did not imbibe alcohol.

It was not just a barbeque but a Japanese style teppanyaki. According to Unc, Haris Salleh was particular fond of teppanyaki, and that night there were several stalls with the typical iron hot plate cum chefs set up strategically around his big garden.

What is a teppanyaki, you may ask? Well Wikipedia informs us:

Teppanyaki (鉄板焼き teppan-yaki?) is a style of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook food. The word teppanyaki is derived from teppan (鉄板), which means iron plate, and yaki (焼き), which means grilled, broiled, or pan-fried.

In Japan, teppanyaki refers to dishes cooked using an iron plate, including steak, shrimp, okonomiyaki, yakisoba, and monjayaki.

Modern teppanyaki grills are typically propane-heated flat surface grills and are widely used to cook food in front of guests at restaurants. Teppanyaki grills are commonly confused with the hibachi barbecue grill, which has a charcoal or gas flame and is made with an open grate design.

With a solid griddle type cook surface, the teppanyaki is more suitable for smaller ingredients, such as rice, egg, and finely chopped vegetables.

When news started to trickle in about the massive loss suffered by Berjaya, the guests of Haris Salleh did a quick disappearing act, leaving only my Unc and a few of his colleagues, low ranking military officers, behind.

Yes, before anyone could utter the word 'yaki', most of the guests were mysteriously gone, wakakaka.

Unc and mateys had gone there under the instructions of their general who did not like to attend the evening celebrations alone. But he (the general) somehow disappeared as well.

So my Unc and his mateys had a quick discussion, and deciding that as military officers who were invited for the teppanyaki and who were also not involved in politics, should stay back out of courtesy to honour their host's kind hospitality.

So they stayed on, ate like hell and boozed away like fishes or drunken sailors (they were all army officers), wakakaka. And it was a jolly good evening for that bunch of military officers.

But Unc did recall how lost Haris Salleh was when he rushed out to the garden to see his usual bodek-ites had A.W.O.L, wakakaka, just like rats deserting a sinking ship - such is Sabahan politics. Yes sir, Haris Salleh was a very very very lonely man that night.

But I fail to see the connection between Haris Salleh's night of loss and Hilary Clinton's as she was still surrounded by her supporters. At least those Yanks had a sense of continuing loyalty to Hilary in contrast to some Sabahans for Haris.