Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs Special Issue: The 2018 Malaysian General Elections Chin, James (2018), Sabah and Sarawak in the 14th General Election 2018 (GE14): Local Factors and State Nationalism, in: Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 37, 3, 173–192. URN: http://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:gbv:18-4-11524 ISSN: 1868-4882 (online), ISSN: 1868-1034 (print) The online version of this article can be found at: <www.CurrentSoutheastAsianAffairs.org> Published by GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Institute of Asian Studies and Hamburg University Press. The Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs is an Open Access publication. It may be read, copied and distributed free of charge according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. To subscribe to the print edition: <
[email protected]> For an e-mail alert please register at: <www.CurrentSoutheastAsianAffairs.org> The Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs is part of the GIGA Journal Family, which also includes Africa Spectrum, Journal of Current Chinese Affairs and Journal of Politics in Latin America: <www.giga-journal-family.org>. Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 3/2018: 173–192 6DEDKDQG6DUDZDNLQWKHWK*HQHUDO (OHFWLRQ *( /RFDO)DFWRUVDQG 6WDWH1DWLRQDOLVP -DPHV&KLQ Abstract: Many would argue that the main factors in Pakatan Harapan’s victory were the 1MDB scandal, anti-Najib and anti-UMNO sentiments, and Mahathir’s ability to penetrate the rural Malay constituencies so as to split the UMNO/PAS vote. In the East Malaysia states of Sabah and Sa- rawak, however, it was local factors and state nationalism that largely de- cided the outcome of GE14.