The Emergence of Towkay Leaders in Party Politics in Sabah

Abstract

Party politics started among the commercial Chinese in Sabah as indeed among the indigenous peoples by way of a reaction to the Malaysia proposal of May 1961. Though Chinese businessmen or towkays at first strongly opposed it they were cautious about how they should organize themselves and their protest. The big businessmen of Sandakan, apparently mindful of the relatively small population of the Chinese1 advised against a Chinese communal party and proposed a communally open one. Jesselton towkays thought in terms of a North Borneo Chinese Association, along the lines of the Malayan Chinese Association but made no move. Chinese leaders seemed to prefer to wait and see what the indigenous people did. The lead was enthusiastically taken by the United National Kadazan Organization, closely followed by the United Sabah National Party and a third party, Pasok Momogun (Son of the Soil) Organization, consisting of Muruts and those akin to the Kadazans but rejected that regional tribal name. In the event the cautious towkays were overtaken by differentiation among them selves. The towkays' political organization was not only the last to open shop but did so in two different places under two different auspices. For a variety of reasons, the United Party started in February 1962 in Sandakan and the North Borneo Democratic Party began, after an initial reshuffle, in the same period in Jesselton.