In order to analyze the significance of federal leaders in the expansion of ethnic politics to the periphery state of Sabah, I have decided to employ the ethnohistorical approach, an approach that integrates both historical and ethnographic approaches. My decision to employ this approach is driven by the fact that it is always important not only to reconstruct the history of ethnic political activities in West Malaysia and specifically in Sabah but also to show how present day people in Sabah live and express their ethnic identity.
This approach allows me to combine two key components of data collected during my fieldwork visits from December 2013 to July 2014 and from December 2015 to January 2016 in Sabah, Malaysia. The collection of both historical and ethnographic data was needed in order to achieve a deeper understanding of the research questions, taking into consideration the complexity of the ethnic politics in Sabah. The reason is that combining different data collection techniques, according to Husung (2016) and Sandelowski (2000), provides the opportunity to gain an increased insight into how the federal leaders based in West Malaysia expanded ethnic political activities in Sabah in a way that led to growing ethnic conflict there.
The historical collection consisted of researching academic publications, historiographic and various types of mediated text such as public speeches by politicians and authorities, magazines, newspapers and interviews with key political figures. Collecting this historical information was considered a favourable way to describe, explain and understand actions or events that occurred sometime in the past (Johnston, 2014; Noor Rahmah & Yusof, 2008). This resulted in the reconstruction of what happened during a certain period of time as completely and accurately as
possible. Most of the historical information on which this thesis is based was gathered during my stay in the capital city of Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, where I had served as an academic in the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (University Malaysia of Sabah, UMS) for more than five years preceding the fieldwork. During the fieldwork I searched historical and archival material about ethnic politics development in local libraries, archives and museums, and collected information by interviewing Sabah political figures. While concentrated on interviewing Sabah political figures, the West Malaysian politicians’ view on how and why the Malay elites would expand ethnic politics in Sabah has also been obtained indirectly to minimise what McCambridge, Witton and Elbourne (2014) call ‘Hawthrone effect’. The concept of Hawthrone effect refers to a situation where the research participants modify an aspect of their behaviour in response to their awareness of being observed or being part of the group being observed, a phenomenon that inclines participants away from an accurate or truthful response (Carter & Libinsky, 2015; Adrian, 1986; Martin, 1962). Therefore, to obtain the West Malaysian politicians’ view on the research questions, I thus had to rely on historical documents and newspapers, which is where most press releases from the ruling politicians and the oppositions are publicised. Such a move has not only contributed to the acquisition of the required information but is also a considered way of reducing cost and time. It is also important to emphasise that the decision to concentrate on Sabah political figures provides an opportunity for me to conduct the interviews easily. Being a local myself and more specifically an indigenous person of Sabah gave me an advantage of prior knowledge and allowed me to conduct interviews easily with local political figures. As a local person of Sabah I did not encounter any communication problems with the
informants while conducting interview sessions because like me they speak Bahasa
Melayu (Malay language).
In addition this thesis is also based on ethnographic enquiry. The ethnographic component consists of interviews with local informants. During the fieldwork in Sabah, I spent about two weeks in each of a number of areas where my key informants live, such as in the village and urban areas in the district of Kudat, Sandakan, Keningau, Tawau, Lahad Datu, Tambunan, Tuaran and Penampang. In most cases I was already familiar with these areas and had good information about the way the people in these areas lived and expressed their ethnic identification through political activities. So I availed myself of the help of my friends and through them met key informants in multiple ways such as while visiting friends in the hospitals, or their house and gerai (stall), or while having breakfast, lunch or dinner in restaurants or village bars, or while shopping at the pasaraya (supermarket) in the nearby town and at the tamu (traditional weekly market). Other than that, I also met my key informants during Pesta Kaamatan (annual Kadazandusun’s traditional harvest festival), majlis perkahwinan (wedding ceremonies), Chinese New Year, Christmas, and various pesta keramaian kampung (village festivals). During these occasions, I talked to at least a hundred people from different tribal backgrounds, not only indigenous but also non-indigenous who had been affected by the ethnic politics of Sabah.
In addition I decided to conduct in-depth interviews with thirty-five key informants including eleven politicians, fourteen government officials, five ordinary native citizens and five immigrants who had become citizens of Malaysia. These key informants were carefully selected based on the criteria of being the persons with
first-hand knowledge about the association between Sabah politics and the governing political elites as well as being part of a particular ethnic group or community within Sabah. I thus ensured that their view was the most credible over others. They comprised twenty-five male and ten female informants. In terms of ethno-religious identity, among the key informants, seventeen individuals were Muslims and eighteen individuals were non-Muslims. The Muslims comprised twelve Muslim
bumiputras and five Muslim non-bumiputras, the non-Muslims comprised thirteen
non-Muslim bumiputras and five non-Muslim non-bumiputras. All the key informants were aged between forty and seventy years old. The reason why all key informants of this study were in that age range, as Minocha, Hartnett, Dunn, Evans, Heap, Middup, Murphy and Roberts (2013) explain, was because they generally spoke clearly, were sincere, helpful, and able to link the past with the present due to their first-hand knowledge on many issues.
The interview sessions with the key informants were crucial as they provided me with specific information about the development, escalation and diffusion of ethnic politics in Sabah. The interviews were held wherever the key informants felt comfortable such as in their home and office. They were conducted as informally as possible to create a more relaxed atmosphere. Most importantly, a set of ethical considerations were followed in this research. The main ethical principles of the study were autonomy, voluntary participation, anonymity and confidentiality. The principle of autonomy and voluntary participation ensured that the participants had the choice to participate in the study or to terminate their participation. In addition, the participants had the choice to refuse to answer some questions. According to Bryman and Bell (2015), Stewart, Shamdasani and Rook (2007), and Douglas, Robert and Thompson (1988), interviews with participants must meet the general
protocol and procedures for interviewing and oral history. Such protocol and procedures were needed because “all social research involves consent, access and associated ethical issues” (Punch, 2000, p. 75). For this reason, before any interview was conducted, informed consent was obtained from the key informants using either oral or written consent form. Specifically, each key informant of this study was informed in advance about the objectives of the study. In addition, each key informer was also informed that their participation was voluntary and they had the right to terminate their participation in the research, as well as choose not to answer any particular question.
The principles of anonymity and confidentiality ensured that the researcher always protected the right to privacy or secrecy of the key informers. To ensure this, information sheets and consent forms were used to explain that any information that the key informants provided would be kept confidential. The key informants in this research project, therefore, were notified in advance that any information they provided would be kept in a secure location, their name and any recorded interaction would be kept confidential, to the extent that the law allows.
My approach to ethnographic fieldwork in this study is based on the concept of ‘experiment of experience’ put forward by Barlocco (2014). The concept of ‘experience experiment’ is a way of analyzing other people’s experiences, views, analogies and emotions about any issues through the shifting of various observations in the consciousness of the researcher, which constitutes the deepest and most meaningful form of knowledge. It is a way of understanding other people’s experiences through the will and ability to connect with them as somebody seeking the necessary knowledge about the issues under investigation. In this case, despite
being a local of Sabah, I started as somebody without a clear understanding of ethnic politics in Sabah. Because of this position, I ended up relying mostly on the knowledge generated through interaction with the informants, particularly the key informants. My reliance on the knowledge generated through interaction with the informants thus put me in the position of not fully understanding the ethnic politics in Sabah. Nevertheless, with the knowledge of Sabah’s ethnic politics gained through this ethnohistorical approach I managed to solve this limitation. This experience, in my view confirms Nonini’s (2015) view of the importance of integrating both historical and ethnographic approach in the study of ethnic politics, even if he never directly mentioned ethnic politics in his study. I would, therefore, argue that employing an ethnohistorical approach to integrate both historical and ethnographic approaches remains vital to the study of ethnic politics because it helps to reconstruct the ongoing history of such phenomena.