Star calls on locals to reject ‘parti parti Malaya’

KOTA KINABALU: The State Reform Party (Star) has called on local voters to rise to the challenge and reject the “parti parti Malaya operating illegally” in Sabah and Sarawak with the Election Commission (EC) and the Registrar of Societies (RoS) turning a blind eye to the 1963 Malaysia Agreement.

The Borneo-based national party, at the same time, urged all local members of the parti parti Malaya “to come back to the right path lest they be accused of being willing to be proxies and stooges of people on the other side of the South China Sea”.

These parties, according to Star in a press statement, “want to steal our seats in the respective state assemblies and Parliament to strengthen their political position while at the same time weakening us as a people”.

“By right, the parti parti Malaya have no business operating in Sabah and Sarawak if we interpret the Malaysia Agreement in letter and spirit,” said Star deputy chairman Daniel John Jambun. “If they want to operate in Sabah and Sarawak, they must incorporate locally and the state chapters must have full autonomy.”

He expressed grave doubts, alternatively, whether the parti parti Malaya in Sabah and Sarawak were in the two states with the knowledge of the RoS while disputing its power to grant any such approval.

He was responding to a statement by the Dewan Pemuda Pas Malaysia on Wed in the local media criticizing Star Chief Jeffrey Kitingan for demanding that the parti parti Malaya leave Sabah and Sarawak and stay out.

Pas wants Jeffrey to let the voters decide and “not take matters into his own hands”.

Daniel while conceding that Pas may have a point on voters deciding accused the parti parti Malaya of taking advantage of the ignorance of people in Sabah and Sarawak on “the true history of Malaysia”. They are slowly waking up to the fact that we have been internally colonised by Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia), he said. “Our history books don’t tell the real story and is full of blatant distortions reflecting the cheap politics of Peninsular Malaysia.”

He reiterated that the EC and RoS were “continuing to condone an illegality” and urged both authorities to bar the parti parti Malaya from Sabah and Sarawak.

Furthermore, he wants the EC to remove the names of Peninsular Malaysian voters from the electoral rolls of the two states “unless they are married to locals, have children, are not members of parti parti Malaya and have permanent residence status”.

The thrust of the argument, stressed Daniel, was that Peninsular Malaysia should have at the most one seat less than two-thirds in Parliament while Sabah and Sarawak collectively should not have less than one seat more than a third in Parliament.

The Malaysia Agreement, continued Daniel, makes this balance of power crystal clear.

Asked what his party could do to rectify the situation and restore the balance of power in Parliament, Daniel said it had many options.

“As a first step, we can take up the matter with the EC and RoS to have a basis for pursuing further action,” said Daniel. “This can be followed by seeking a Judicial Review, if necessary, in Court.”

The Star deputy chief also vowed that his party would bar Peninsular Malaysian politicians from Sabah and Sarawak when they eventually take power.

At the same time, he ventured, “we can place travel restrictions for political purposes on locals who are members of the parti parti Malaya operating illegally in Sabah and Sarawak”.

One final step, he proposed, would be to instruct the local authorities not to issue any licence to the parti parti Malaya to operate premises in Sabah and Sarawak.

All these steps, if pursued, would eliminate the problem of the parti parti Malaya placing illegal immigrants on the electoral rolls in Sabah and Sarawak, assured Daniel. “We have had enough of these people – illegal immigrants – trying to steal our country from us right under our noses.”