State gov’t leaders ignoring Sabah’s special rights

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Government leaders are giving too much priority to their own party interests and vested personal interests to the point of foregoing Sabah’s special rights and the rights of Sabahans.

 

The Chairman of the UNITED BORNEO FRONT (UBF), Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, told the descendants of Tun Datu Mustapha Datu Harun, who were among the attendants of UBF’s Tea Party at Kepayan Ridge on Saturday last week. Tun Mustapha was a Chief Minister of Sabah, the President of the United Sabah National Organisation (Usno) which sacrificed itself by dissolving to make way for Umno to come into Sabah.

 

Jeffrey said that although they were pushed and rushed into the formation of Malaysia, the Founding Fathers of Sabah (then North Borneo) before and at the time of the formation of Malaysia in 1963, they had the interests of Sabah and Sabahans at heart. He reminded the audience that the protection of the rights and interests of Sabah and Sabahans can still be seen via the 20-Points Agreement, the Reports of the Cobbold Commission and the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report, the Malaysia Agreement, 1963 itself and assurances and promises publicly made by the leaders of the then Malaya. 

 

“Sadly, the same cannot be said of the Sabah leaders since West Malaysian political leaders made their way into Sabah,” he said. “It became worse for Sabah since Umno/BN illegally wrested the State Government form PBS in 1994. All it has been doing is only to implement decisions made in West Malaysia without any reference to or discussions with Sabahans – not even consulting the other BN components!”

 

He said, in addition, Sabah BN leaders just stood by and allowed the continuous erosion of Sabah’s special rights ending with Sabah being reduced to being one of the 13 states in Malaysia.  “At the same time Sabah became the poorest State in Malaysia while Petronas ends up with 95% of Sabah’s oil and gas revenue amounting to tens of billions annually,” he said. “If Sabahans do not seize the current window of opportunity to join hands in unity and to seek and restore the rights and interests of Sabah, Sabah will continue to be  colonized and ruled by Peninsular Malaysians and Peninsular political parties.”

 

He said it is important for Sabahans to wake up to the reality that under Umno/BN  the rights and interests of Sabah and Sabahans are sidelined or ignored while the people’s allegiance is kept through token rewards and developments, promises, and crony connections.

 

“The scenario worsened after the rotation of the Chief Minister was stopped to give Umno a permanent monopoly on the CM’s post while the local Sabah BN components were muted, gagged and relegated to being mere followers,” he said. “In hindsight, we know that the rotation of the CM’s post is not sanctioned by the State Constitution, but the system was introduced as a clever ploy by Kuala Lumpur to lure the Sabah leaders to team up with UMNO initially and corner them into Kuala Lumpur’s control! The ploy trapped the Sabah leaders who thought it was a form of justice and innovative power-sharing formula offered by fair-thinking KL leaders. But the honeymoon soon became a nightmare when the rotation was stopped permanently.”

 

He addaed that the colonial thinking of the KL leaders have led to state administration almost totally controlled by Peninsular Malays. “Even the hiring of school computer technicians need to be filled by West Malaysians, and simple administrative decisions like transfer of teachers and students need to be approved by Putrajaya,” he pointed out. “And Sabahans trained by the State Government are simply sidelined.  What then is the purpose of having a Sabah Minister for education and a Ministerial Cabinet as the State Government? It’s obvious they cannot even protect the interests of their own people!”

 

“The efforts of the Founding Fathers including Tun Datu Mustapha who had initially opposed the entry of UMNO into Sabah are now all wasted. What is the use of having safeguards in the Malaysia Agreement and the Federal Constitution when the State leaders keep standing by and allowing the rights and interests of Sabah and Sabahans to be eroded continuously?” he thundered to the applause of those present.

 

The crowded also roared in approval when Dr. Jeffrey said that if the current leaders still fail to look after the interests of  Sabah and Sabahans, then it is time for Sabahans to be united and use their votes to change the state leaders and the State Government. 

 

“Sabah and Sarawak must be united in purpose and action to seek and restore their rightful place in Malaysia so that all Sabahans and Sarawakians can get their fair share of progress and development in Malaysia,” he said. “It is time patriotic Sabahans to be united and support the their rights and interests, and together move the Love Sabah campaign under the banner of the Borneo Agenda.”