Former Minister of Economy Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli has once again commented on the results of the Sabah state election, criticizing Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) decision to cooperate with Barisan Nasional (BN) as a misstep. He argued that when the Sabah People’s Alliance (Gabungan Rakyat Sabah, GRS) and BN failed to reach a consensus, PH should have intervened to form an agreement with Sabah-based parties. The current political landscape, he noted, now presents Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim with difficult challenges.
Rafizi raised the issue during the 28th episode of his YBM podcast and shared a highlights clip on Facebook, analyzing the core reasons behind PH’s loss in Sabah. He stated plainly that “politics is not about trying to ‘embrace’ all parties everywhere.”
In the podcast, Rafizi posed a pointed question to Anwar, describing it as a topic many dare not address: “Does Anwar have the political courage to make difficult decisions? Maintaining harmony may be a strategy, but what price will we pay when facing the 16th General Election?”
Reflecting on PH’s underperformance in Sabah, Rafizi said he had previously explained the state’s political dynamics. “Since early 2025, data and surveys have shown that Sabah’s real competition favors local parties, namely GRS and the Heritage Party (WARISAN). Therefore, Sabah should not have become a battleground between local and national parties. However, when GRS and BN failed to reach an agreement, PH found itself in a very disadvantaged position.”
He emphasized that he had clearly advised from the start that if BN could not come to terms with GRS, PH should have collaborated with GRS directly. He criticized PH’s initial move to work with BN as a mistake: “The moment BN announced cooperation with PH, everything began to go wrong. The first step was wrong, and it made everything complicated — multi-party competition emerged, trust was lost, and support did not shift as expected.”
