EAST ASIA : Malaysian State Rocks Trend of One-Party Rule : Breakaway party’s win in Sabah is nasty shock to government coalition. Prime minister had staked his personal prestige on a victory.

The political trend in East Asia seems clearly headed toward the one-party state.

Indonesia and Singapore are just two examples of countries under the authoritarian rule of single-party governments that promise the voters economic growth and jobs instead of liberal democracy. China, Vietnam and even Myanmar are finding much that they like about this new political hybrid.

Malaysia, another of Asia’s fast-growing economies, seemed well down the road to a one-party state as well. The government is dominated by a coalition called the National Front, whose major component is the United Malays National Organization of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed.

But an election last weekend in the northern Borneo state of Sabah has left the government’s hopes of domination badly dented and has seriously embarrassed the prime minister, who had staked his personal prestige on a victory.

When the votes were finally counted, a local, ethnic-based political group called the United Sabah Party headed by Joseph Pairin Kitingan, the state’s chief minister, had narrowly defeated the National Front, capturing 25 of the 48 seats in the state Assembly. National Front candidates captured the remaining 23.

Sabah joined Kelantan as the only two states in the country to fall to opposition parties, though the Islamic fundamentalist party now ruling Kelantan differed with Kuala Lumpur more over religion than politics.

Malaysia has 13 states, each with its own state legislature and a chief minister who functions like an American governor. The federal government is organized on British parliamentary lines.

The United Sabah Party had once been a part of the National Front but pulled out in 1990 in an act that Mahathir called a “stab in the back.” Since then, the federal government has shown little mercy toward its political opponents in Sabah.

In 1991, Jeffrey Kitingan, brother of the chief minister, was detained without trial for treason under the country’s Draconian security laws. He was never charged with a crime, but he was not released until just before the election.

The chief minister himself was then charged with corruption for steering a $40,000 government contract to relatives, a relatively minor offense in a country where federal officials are widely believed to skim off billions from government contracts each year. But Joseph Pairin Kitingan was convicted and fined $270, a penalty small enough under the law for him to remain in politics.

During the recent campaign for the state legislature, the National Front showed just how much political muscle is available to a ruling party when it has a stranglehold on the federal government. Not only did the entire federal Cabinet come to the remote province to campaign, but the country’s national television and national newspapers dropped any pretense at impartiality and devoted huge efforts to the National Front cause.

In the closing days of the campaign, Mahathir provided a thinly veiled threat to the electorate: Support the National Front, or the impoverished state would be cut off from much-needed development assistance.

The National Front pledged to spend $260 million building schools and a university in Sabah. But the arm-twisting is what everyone remembered.

In the end, the ethnic stew in Sabah proved stronger than politics. The United Sabah Party is supported mainly by Kadazans, the indigenous people in Sabah who are Christian, while Mahathir’s party is Muslim.

Mahathir also seemed to underestimate the voters’ concerns about preserving a separate political identity. States’ rights are so important in Sabah that travelers from peninsular Malaysia still have to pass through the state’s own immigration office.

A Malaysian Surprise

An opposition party’s upset victory in the Malaysian state of Sabah has left the government’s hope of domination badly dented and has seriously embarrassed Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed.

Sabah’s population: 2 million

Population of Malaysia: 20 million

Sabah’s size: 28,460 square miles, about the same as South Carolina

Government: Each of Malaysia’s 13 state states has its own legislature and a chief minister who functions like an American governor.

Sabah Ethnic Breakdown

Ethnic Chinese: 20%

Christian: 40%

Muslim: 40%