COMMENT | As someone who grew up in the late 1990s, I first learned the names of Sabah districts in two unexpected ways: through the Iftar timetable on television, and during election broadcasts.

Names such as Kudat, Lahad Datu, Sandakan, Kota Belud and Tawau flashed across the screen long before I knew what those places looked like.

During election season, Sabah’s results often came earlier than the rest of the country, partly because polling stations closed sooner and because several seats were routinely won uncontested.

For decades, Sabah functioned as BN’s “fixed deposit”, even during the upheaval of the 1998 Reformasi movement.

The political logic was familiar...