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THE POLITICS OF ETHNICITY, FEDERALISM AND DEVELOPMENT IN A MALAYSIAN STATE: A CASE STUDY OF THE BERJAYA GOVERNMENT IN SABAH, MALAYSIA) 1976-1985

This thesis is a study of the political development of the Malaysian state of Sabah under the administration of Parti Bersatu Rakyat Jelata Sabah (BERJA Y A Sabah People's United Party), which controlled the state legislature between 1976 and 1985. It attempts to disentangle the three dominant themes within social scientific studies of Sabah: the issues of federalism, the politics of ethnicity, and the political economy of development. The broad argument that the thesis makes can be summarized thus: The emergence of a developmentalist discourse under the BERJA YA regime in Sabah can largely be traced to its failure to reconcile the localized ethnic politics of Sabah with the demands of a strong central state and thus the need to find an alternative strategy of political support and control. The formation of BERJAYA at the behest of the federal government, it is argued, began a process of rationalization and the extension of federal control over Sabah politics. Yet BERJA YA also became embroiled in the ongoing factional disputes on the federal level, limiting the impact of this process. In such a context, the BERJAYA leadership turned to developmentalism as its main legitimizing discourse. BERJA YA's policies of development were considerably party-oriented and most of the strategies of economic development benefited primarily at those who supported the BERJAYA government both in terms of select individuals who benefited from patronage networks and in a broader perception of preferential treatment for Muslims. While this strategy proved effective while developmental growth was high during the first BERJAYA administration (1976-1981), the relative collapse of the state economy from 1982 onwards exposed its ethnic predilections and prefigured declining support for the regime, particularly among the non-Muslim bumiputera groups. Despite the consolidation of federal support for BERJAYA under the Mahathir administration, the