The 1986 Sabah riots, also known as The Silent Riot, occurred between March and May in various locations around the state of

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...

, Malaysia. The riots centred mainly in the capital

Kota Kinabalu , image_skyline = , image_caption = From top, left to right, bottom:Kota Kinabalu skyline, Wawasan intersection, Tun Mustapha Tower, Kota Kinabalu Coastal Highway, the Kota Kinabalu City Mosque, the Wism ...

, as well as in the towns of

Tawau Tawau (, Jawi: , ), formerly known as Tawao, is the capital of the Tawau District in Sabah, Malaysia. It is the third-largest city in Sabah, after Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan. It is located on the Semporna Peninsula in the southeast coast of t ...

and

Sandakan Sandakan (, Jawi: , ) formerly known at various times as Elopura, is the capital of the Sandakan District in Sabah, Malaysia. It is the second largest city in Sabah after Kota Kinabalu. It is located on the Sandakan Peninsula and east coast of ...

. On 12 March, seven plastic explosives were detonated in Kota Kinabalu. A bomb was also detonated in Tawau. At least five bombs exploded in Sandakan killing one newspaper vendor and injuring a senior Police Field Force officer. The riots resulted in the death of 5 people.

History

The riots occurred in response to the results of the 1985 state election, whereby the newly formed

Parti Bersatu Sabah The United Sabah Party ( ms, Parti Bersatu Sabah, abbreviated PBS) is a political party of Sabah. The PBS was founded by Joseph Pairin Kitingan in 1985 and it is Sabah's oldest local party. In August 2020, PBS confirmed that they would be using ...

(United Sabah Party) won, ousting Parti Berjaya from the helm of government. Berjaya was the previous ruling party and a component party of

Barisan Nasional The National Front ( ms, Barisan Nasional; abbrev: BN) is a political coalition of Malaysia that was founded in 1973 as a coalition of centre-right and right-wing political parties. It is also the third largest political coalition with 30 se ...

(BN), the nation's and federal ruling coalition party. It was reported that mobs took to the streets to bring down the president of PBS Pairin Kitingan from the Chief Minister post. It was also suspected that the riots were triggered by the losing parties including BN to bring forth a proclamation of

emergency An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

to justify a takeover by the federal government similar to those which happened in 1966 in Sarawak and 1977 in Kelantan. Pairin, himself a former member of Party Berjaya, formed PBS barely 47 days before the elections. Opponents of PBS, namely,

Harris Salleh Harris bin Mohd Salleh (born 4 November 1930) is a Malaysian politician who served as the 6th Chief Minister of Sabah from June 1976 to April 1985. During his tenure, he controversially ceded the island of Labuan, which used to be part of stat ...

of Berjaya, and Tun Mustapha of USNO were dissatisfied with the result. Tun Mustapha then sought to get sworn in as Chief Minister illegally, and this resulted in a court battle which ended in favour of Pairin. PBS later sought to have snap election because of political manoeuvring causing PBS representatives to

defect A defect is a physical, functional, or aesthetic attribute of a product or service that exhibits that the product or service failed to meet one of the desired specifications. Defect, defects or defected may also refer to: Examples * Angular defec ...

. Malaysian Prime Minister

Mahathir Mohamed Mahathir bin Mohamad ( ms, محاضير بن محمد, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset; ; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician, author, and physician who served as the 4th and 7th Prime Minister of Malaysia. He held the office ...

also tried to negotiate with PBS to form a coalition with BN in return for peace in the state. Finally

the election ''The Election'' () is a political drama series produced by Hong Kong Television Network (HKTV). With a budget of HK$15 million, filming started in July 2014 and wrapped up on 28 October 2014. Popularly voted to be the inaugural drama of ...

was held on 4 and 5 May 1986. PBS won again and this time with a bigger margin.

Legacy

A documentary on the 1986 riots was created by Sabahan film-maker

Nadira Ilana Nadira Ilana is a Malaysian filmmaker, independent film programmer and writer of indigenous Dusun heritage from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. In 2016 she established film production company Telan Bulan Films with the aim of producing and promoting contem ...

released in 2012 called ''The Silent Riot''. The film emerged as one of the winning proposals for the Freedom Film Fest (FFF) 2012.

References

* ''

Chronicle of Malaysia The ''Chronicle of Malaysia'' gives an account of Malaysia from January 1957 to 31 August 2007. Published in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Malaysian Independence, this book provides an account of major news events that occurred during ...

'', Editions Didier Millet (2007). "1986". {{DEFAULTSORT:1986 Sabah Riots

Politics of Sabah Riots and civil disorder in Malaysia History of Sabah Sabah Riots, 1986 Protests in Malaysia

History

Legacy

Further reading

References