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Why the Jeffrey agenda will work
By Raymond Tombung
SIDEVIEW, Borneo Post, 28 Nov, 2010
THERE IS no denying that a new election fever has taken root, what with leaders talking about preparing for the apparently imminent GE13, denying it, and then speaking of issues in terms of how they will all affect performances in the GE13. And there is already speculation that the GE13 will be next year, perhaps in April or July. This theory has gained currency since the BN victories with the Batu Sapi and Galas by-elections and later reinforced by the turmoil in PKR. Then, the idea of the Third Force under Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, raising the likelihood of the opposition splitting their votes further, gave BN more confidence to win the GE13 with higher margin, even maybe to regain its two-third ma-jority in Parliament. Some observers, however believe BN shouldn’t be unduly swayed by overzealous news carriers saying that it’s time for general elections because the recent by-election victories in Galas and Batu Sapi may not be true reflections of the people’s current sentiment.
PKR’s Dr. Syed Hussein Ali used his speech at the seventh Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Wanita and Youth congress on Friday to warn that the Third Force could prevent the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) from achieving a huge victory in the next general elections – a clear admittance of the seriousness and potential strength of the Third Force which is now in the process of solidifying into a formal entity. But Syed Hussein’s warning may not be necessarily valid because they are other possible outcomes from the current problems. PKR may lose its lustre and appeal, which is not impossible because this is already happening to PKR Sabah and Sa-rawak! And at the national level, PKR appears to have inadvertently exposed the seeds of its own destruction! Note that if such a fate will indeed befall the whole of PKR, it will have a very serious effect on the morale of the PR. Its other components, DAP and PAS may leave to join the Third Force. If that happens, the Third Force, initially with Datuk Zaid Ibrahim and Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, will become the Second Force, with PKR way behind as a small and no longer significant force!
But what is certain is that the fate of Sabah PKR is now heading for a quick decline due to several very important factors: 1. Many Muslim leaders have already left PKR Sabah, among them Datuk Nahalan Damsal and the state secretary, Mursalim Tanjul, and Thamrin Hj Jaini may be on the way out; 2. Datuk Dr. Jeffrey is seriously considering a new political platform, meaning he will eventually leave PKR; and 3. 1. Hj Ansari Abdullah, as de facto leader of PKR Sabah will not be able to continue the party’s support form the KDM community. This may not immediately drag the party back to its pre-Jeffrey lacklustre days when Ansari had to admit “Keadilan Sabah has a serious problem; we have no credible KDM leaders,” but the impact of Jeffrey’s withdrawal will be immense, a psychological mountain’s shift, to say the least. What will happen? The KDM support for PKR will simply almost disappear without his iconic influence. A few lower-runk KDM lea-ders may hang on for a while but without the strength of Jeffrey’s image and ideological vision hovering above and behind them, they will lose support from their own people. The idolising of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and the sympathy for him being prosecuted, in fact had never gripped the KDMs strongly enough for them to keep them in the party. Such loyalty will be even less now that various allegations of racial and religious biases touching on the KDM sensitivities have been raised in PKR. PKR is rumoured to be considering a potential replace-ment for Jeffrey in the person of Datuk Kalakau Untol, Tuaran’s former Member of Parliament and former Deputy Minister. But there is strong doubt that Kalakau will be able to exert enough leadership muscle to fill the huge vacuum left by Jeffrey, and it’s a foregone conclusion he will not be able to hold back the KDM exodus, while he himself will have to seriously consider his own political future if he stayed in PKR! On the Chinese side, Christina Liew, too, will have to evaluate the scenario to weigh her options, and her matured astuteness will lead her to the right choice.
In the current state of political adjustments, an important new alignment will have to emerge, and this time such an alignment is materializing in tandem with the people’s aspi-ration for change, reform, and in the case of Sabah and Sarawak, for more rights and greater autonomy. As if a more than two-decade strug-gle for Jeffrey had eventually been given the right opening and was built the clear path by Providence at the due and proper time, the idea for the struggle of the rights and autonomy for not only Sabah and Sarawak had eventually matured into a functioning form at a time when history suddenly shifted to accommodate it according to schedule! It is an idea whose time has come. Why the idea and political platform for Sabah and Sarawak rights and autonomy will work is very simple. It responds, and is the answer, to a long-cherished dream of millions of people – an idea which had long incubated and is now ready to hatch out of the egg into a new rousing agenda. The rallying call for a re-adjust-ment of the Malaysian federation’s arrangement of 13 states into a federation of three-regions, i.e. Sabah, Sarawak and Malaya (without Singa-pore now) is appealing and irresistible simply because that was the agreement signed and sealed by the federation’s founding fathers.
The plan for Sabah’s and Sarawak’s autonomy, birthed from a common desire of the populace, and based on what is moral and right, has a very high potential of garnering more substantial support towards achieving its object-tives. If there is any doubt that this plan is wrong and is a sinister plan by a few radical and rene-gades, consider the fact that since Jeffrey’s bravado in bringing up the issue of the then forgotten 20-Point Agreement in late 1980s, he didn’t have any prophetic foresight that this moment of ideological hatching would material-lize today, more than two decades later. And when he formed the Kadazandusun Develop-ment Institute (KDI), much later becoming the Borneo Heritage Foundation (BHF) which then became a friendly platform for a forum for Sa-bah, Sarawak and Kalimantan societies’ leaders, he still had little inkling it would morph into a real forceful vehicle for reform and change in the two Borneo states. But the idea did grow and matured to its exciting new construct. Was there an invisible hand guiding the gentle process into fruition for a certain destiny over the long period?
The advantage that Jeffrey has over Zaid is that Jeffrey doesn’t have to worry about joining a national level Third Force. Zaid has to worry about marshalling enough support to overtake PKR or PR while Jeffrey has already done that in his own turf in Borneo! Zaid has to identify a solid ideological platform to strengthen his “change and reform” slogan, while Jeffrey has established his own platform, having started the ideological construction for more than 20 years! Zaid is new in politics, Jeffrey is a veteran who had been to the political and legal battlefields and came back with battle scars. Zaid has to aim for Putrajaya while Jeffrey will be satisfied with establishing a secure foothold in Sabah and Sarawak for his new group. Zaid needs to build his support of uncertain segments of the elec-torate in the Peninsular, while the Borneo-based Third Force already has the multiracial and multi-religious natives of Borneo as its base. The Borneo Third Force’s hold of the Borneo states, without being bound by obligations to a Peninsular party, will strengthen the Borneo voice for rights and autonomy. Hence, Jeffrey doesn’t have to join Zaid, but Zaid, to expand his wings to Borneo, will have to appeal to Jeffrey to join him.
Jeffrey therefore is poised at a position for pre-emptive strikes. He is no longer at a cross-roads, but on a certain destination along the high road from which he can forge alliances on his own terms! Those are the very reasons why Jeffrey is on the right track, why the Sabah-Sarawak agenda will work, and why a new po-litical dawn will rise in Borneo in the next few months.
Meanwhile, PKR Sabah, after the hollow excitements of the on-going convention, will have to answer a lot of difficult questions as to how it can go on after it has run out of breath trying to put down Zaid and Jeffrey. But that’s a whole different story.
By Raymond Tombung
SIDEVIEW, Borneo Post, 28 Nov, 2010
THERE IS no denying that a new election fever has taken root, what with leaders talking about preparing for the apparently imminent GE13, denying it, and then speaking of issues in terms of how they will all affect performances in the GE13. And there is already speculation that the GE13 will be next year, perhaps in April or July. This theory has gained currency since the BN victories with the Batu Sapi and Galas by-elections and later reinforced by the turmoil in PKR. Then, the idea of the Third Force under Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, raising the likelihood of the opposition splitting their votes further, gave BN more confidence to win the GE13 with higher margin, even maybe to regain its two-third ma-jority in Parliament. Some observers, however believe BN shouldn’t be unduly swayed by overzealous news carriers saying that it’s time for general elections because the recent by-election victories in Galas and Batu Sapi may not be true reflections of the people’s current sentiment.
PKR’s Dr. Syed Hussein Ali used his speech at the seventh Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Wanita and Youth congress on Friday to warn that the Third Force could prevent the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) from achieving a huge victory in the next general elections – a clear admittance of the seriousness and potential strength of the Third Force which is now in the process of solidifying into a formal entity. But Syed Hussein’s warning may not be necessarily valid because they are other possible outcomes from the current problems. PKR may lose its lustre and appeal, which is not impossible because this is already happening to PKR Sabah and Sa-rawak! And at the national level, PKR appears to have inadvertently exposed the seeds of its own destruction! Note that if such a fate will indeed befall the whole of PKR, it will have a very serious effect on the morale of the PR. Its other components, DAP and PAS may leave to join the Third Force. If that happens, the Third Force, initially with Datuk Zaid Ibrahim and Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, will become the Second Force, with PKR way behind as a small and no longer significant force!
But what is certain is that the fate of Sabah PKR is now heading for a quick decline due to several very important factors: 1. Many Muslim leaders have already left PKR Sabah, among them Datuk Nahalan Damsal and the state secretary, Mursalim Tanjul, and Thamrin Hj Jaini may be on the way out; 2. Datuk Dr. Jeffrey is seriously considering a new political platform, meaning he will eventually leave PKR; and 3. 1. Hj Ansari Abdullah, as de facto leader of PKR Sabah will not be able to continue the party’s support form the KDM community. This may not immediately drag the party back to its pre-Jeffrey lacklustre days when Ansari had to admit “Keadilan Sabah has a serious problem; we have no credible KDM leaders,” but the impact of Jeffrey’s withdrawal will be immense, a psychological mountain’s shift, to say the least. What will happen? The KDM support for PKR will simply almost disappear without his iconic influence. A few lower-runk KDM lea-ders may hang on for a while but without the strength of Jeffrey’s image and ideological vision hovering above and behind them, they will lose support from their own people. The idolising of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and the sympathy for him being prosecuted, in fact had never gripped the KDMs strongly enough for them to keep them in the party. Such loyalty will be even less now that various allegations of racial and religious biases touching on the KDM sensitivities have been raised in PKR. PKR is rumoured to be considering a potential replace-ment for Jeffrey in the person of Datuk Kalakau Untol, Tuaran’s former Member of Parliament and former Deputy Minister. But there is strong doubt that Kalakau will be able to exert enough leadership muscle to fill the huge vacuum left by Jeffrey, and it’s a foregone conclusion he will not be able to hold back the KDM exodus, while he himself will have to seriously consider his own political future if he stayed in PKR! On the Chinese side, Christina Liew, too, will have to evaluate the scenario to weigh her options, and her matured astuteness will lead her to the right choice.
In the current state of political adjustments, an important new alignment will have to emerge, and this time such an alignment is materializing in tandem with the people’s aspi-ration for change, reform, and in the case of Sabah and Sarawak, for more rights and greater autonomy. As if a more than two-decade strug-gle for Jeffrey had eventually been given the right opening and was built the clear path by Providence at the due and proper time, the idea for the struggle of the rights and autonomy for not only Sabah and Sarawak had eventually matured into a functioning form at a time when history suddenly shifted to accommodate it according to schedule! It is an idea whose time has come. Why the idea and political platform for Sabah and Sarawak rights and autonomy will work is very simple. It responds, and is the answer, to a long-cherished dream of millions of people – an idea which had long incubated and is now ready to hatch out of the egg into a new rousing agenda. The rallying call for a re-adjust-ment of the Malaysian federation’s arrangement of 13 states into a federation of three-regions, i.e. Sabah, Sarawak and Malaya (without Singa-pore now) is appealing and irresistible simply because that was the agreement signed and sealed by the federation’s founding fathers.
The plan for Sabah’s and Sarawak’s autonomy, birthed from a common desire of the populace, and based on what is moral and right, has a very high potential of garnering more substantial support towards achieving its object-tives. If there is any doubt that this plan is wrong and is a sinister plan by a few radical and rene-gades, consider the fact that since Jeffrey’s bravado in bringing up the issue of the then forgotten 20-Point Agreement in late 1980s, he didn’t have any prophetic foresight that this moment of ideological hatching would material-lize today, more than two decades later. And when he formed the Kadazandusun Develop-ment Institute (KDI), much later becoming the Borneo Heritage Foundation (BHF) which then became a friendly platform for a forum for Sa-bah, Sarawak and Kalimantan societies’ leaders, he still had little inkling it would morph into a real forceful vehicle for reform and change in the two Borneo states. But the idea did grow and matured to its exciting new construct. Was there an invisible hand guiding the gentle process into fruition for a certain destiny over the long period?
The advantage that Jeffrey has over Zaid is that Jeffrey doesn’t have to worry about joining a national level Third Force. Zaid has to worry about marshalling enough support to overtake PKR or PR while Jeffrey has already done that in his own turf in Borneo! Zaid has to identify a solid ideological platform to strengthen his “change and reform” slogan, while Jeffrey has established his own platform, having started the ideological construction for more than 20 years! Zaid is new in politics, Jeffrey is a veteran who had been to the political and legal battlefields and came back with battle scars. Zaid has to aim for Putrajaya while Jeffrey will be satisfied with establishing a secure foothold in Sabah and Sarawak for his new group. Zaid needs to build his support of uncertain segments of the elec-torate in the Peninsular, while the Borneo-based Third Force already has the multiracial and multi-religious natives of Borneo as its base. The Borneo Third Force’s hold of the Borneo states, without being bound by obligations to a Peninsular party, will strengthen the Borneo voice for rights and autonomy. Hence, Jeffrey doesn’t have to join Zaid, but Zaid, to expand his wings to Borneo, will have to appeal to Jeffrey to join him.
Jeffrey therefore is poised at a position for pre-emptive strikes. He is no longer at a cross-roads, but on a certain destination along the high road from which he can forge alliances on his own terms! Those are the very reasons why Jeffrey is on the right track, why the Sabah-Sarawak agenda will work, and why a new po-litical dawn will rise in Borneo in the next few months.
Meanwhile, PKR Sabah, after the hollow excitements of the on-going convention, will have to answer a lot of difficult questions as to how it can go on after it has run out of breath trying to put down Zaid and Jeffrey. But that’s a whole different story.
It is god to see Mr Tombung write-up in this blogroll..
ReplyDeleteHope he continues.. Keep up the good work