[1][2] Once in Java, Sabara joined a battalion in the nationalist government, having been before grown an interest in the military due to watching KNIL drills as a child.

[1] In 1948, he was a first lieutenant in command of a reserve company which was about to be deployed to Sulawesi when his unit was attacked and disarmed by Communist militias during the Madiun Affair.

[4][5] The previous civilian governor and the first elected governor of the province, La Ode Hadi, was forced to leave his position in 1966 before he had held it for two years following a wave of demonstrations during the transition to the New Order, allowing the popular Sabara (at that time a lieutenant colonel) to take over.

[6] Southeast Sulawesi was very sparsely populated at the start of his tenure, with little to no government budget, and Sabara opted to relocate locals (mostly nomadic farmers) alongside resettlement areas where roads were planned.

[2] According to Sabara in a 1983 interview with Tempo, his wife initially believed that his appointment to Southeast Sulawesi was an exile of sorts.

[2] During his time there, he became acting governors for Jambi (1979),[7] Central Sulawesi (25 November 1980 – 1981),[8] and Aceh (15 March – 27 August 1981),[9] During his temporary governorships of Aceh and Central Sulawesi, he had encountered political gridlocks in the provincial legislatures during their attempt to appoint a definitive governor.