We must not let foreigners rule our states

By Edward Linggu

Among popular debate topics is the suggestion that only Peninsular Malaysia-based political parties can be national parties and anything from Sabah and Sarawak must be local.

In fact, the State Reform Party (Star) is a Borneo-based national party which has initiated the United Borneo Alliance (UBA) to unite all local parties in Sabah and Sarawak. The UBA, still work in progress, includes the United Borneo Front (UBF) which organizes the Borneo tea Parties, the Common Interest Group Malaysia (CigMA), the Borneo Heritage Foundation (BHF), the Borneo Forum (BF) and the Sarawak National Party (Snap).


Star will be the nucleus of a 3rd Force in the Malaysian Parliament. The 3rd Force will steer evenly between the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and the Barisan Nasional (BN), both Peninsular Malaysia-based national alliance/coalition.

Initially at least, the bulk of the 3rd Force is expected to come from both sides of the political divide.

The 3rd Force consists of Sabah, Sarawak, and allies in Peninsular Malaysia viz. the Orang Asli, the Christians, other minorities and fence-sitters and the Indian community which decides in 67 of the Parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia.

While we can agree in principle with Demokrasi Sabah’s (Desah) call for one-to-one contests at the forthcoming 13th General Election, ostensibly to further strengthen and entrench the two-party system, the latter is not a good idea for Sabah and Sarawak.

So, we feel that there’s much food for thought as follows:

Is it true to say that Sabah and Sarawak would be going from the frying pan (BN) into the fire (PR) or from the fire (BN) into the frying pan (PR) under a two-party system?;

Since both BN and PR are Peninsular Malaysia-based national alliances, is there a case for a Borneo-based national coalition to emerge as a 3rd Force in Parliament to rival them and secure and protect Sabah, S'wak rights?;

Is it true to say that the presence of the parti parti Malaya in Sabah and Sarawak further compromises the balance of power in the Malaysian Parliament as envisaged under the 1963 Malaysia Agreement?

The much heralded system change if any must not stop at Peninsular Malaysia and exclude Sabah and Sarawak.

There are no race issues in Sabah and Sarawak, at least nothing serious enough which warrants too much public concern and/or which cannot be resolved at the ballot box, unless brought by visiting politicians from Peninsular Malaysia.

Critics in any case, especially in Peninsular Malaysia, also appear oblivious to local history.

They also appear equally oblivious to the fact that the politics of Peninsular Malaysia, based on jealousy of the Chinese in business, racial polarisation and more recently the proverbial "falling out among thieves", are surely not what Sabah and Sarawak are all about.

Most Sabahans and Sarawakians unlike the Anwar Ibrahims don't care whether a cat is black or white -- shades of the late Deng Zhiao Peng -- as long as it can catch mice. Anything that runs contrary to this comes from Peninsular Malaysia which appears determined, under Umno, to re-cast Sabah and Sarawak in its political mould of race and religion.

These are among the reasons, but clearly not the only ones, for the State Reform Party (Star) in Sabah to declare recently that it will go for all 60 state seats at stake and 26 parliamentary seats including one in Labuan come the 13th GE.

The stand taken by Star and UBA is clear

Sabahans and Sarawakians should not allow the powers-that-be to do to them what the US Gov't and Whites did to the native Indian nations in America.

They need to resist the slave mentality foisted on them by the BN’s dependency syndrome and subsidy regime -- the US Gov't and the Whites did this to the Indians after pushing them into Reservations -- and instead maintain their maruah and absolute unity.

It doesn't need a genius to point out that Sabahans are the poorest people in Malaysia, even poorer than those in neighbouring dirt-poor Sarawak, because they either have no money or very little money.

If the Peninsular Malaysia-based Umno and BN have the right formula for Sabah, why was the state singled out by the World Bank at the end of 2010 as the poorest state in Malaysia? Umno and BN should stop spinning fairy tales.

The current poverty line index in Sabah is RM 1, 048.

However, the recently announced minimum wage for Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan has been pegged at RM 800 per month although Sabah MTUC pleaded for RM 1, 200 per month and our cost of living is 40 per cent above that for Peninsular Malaysia. Given the RM 900 per month minimum wage in Peninsular Malaysia, that for Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan should have been RM 1, 260 per month.

Meanwhile, Sabahans get an average salary of RM 577 per month.

Things are likely to get a whole lot worse in Sabah and Sarawak before they get any better.

The reason is a bad British idea called Malaysia.
Malaysia, for Sabah and Sarawak has meant exchanging British colonialism for Malayan colonization. Brunei saw through the Malaysia scam and stayed out of the Federation at the 11th hour. Singapore was trapped just like Sabah and Sarawak but managed to escape two years later in 1965.

Look where Brunei and Singapore are today compared with Sabah and Sarawak.

The S'pore/Brunei currency is worth RM 2.50 sen. At the same time, their cost of living is very much lower than in Sabah and Sarawak.

Under the Malaya-controlled Federal Government, internal colonization has been the cruel fate of Sabah and Sarawak.

Impoverished hordes are rushing into our states to marginalize and disenfranchise us and make us even poorer.

The Federal Government takes 95 per cent of our oil and gas revenue in the inner waters and 100 per cent of these resources in our outer waters. This is an illegal act as pointed out by the Sabah Law Association which has since declared that the Petroleum Development Act (PDA) is unconstitutional. If the PDA is unconstitutional, the so-called oil agreement between Sabah/Sarawak and Petronas does not exist.

At the same, almost all other revenue is being taken away by the Federal Government. Last year, such revenue amounted to RM 40 billion. Those who are interested in the details can Google YouTube for Dr Jeffrey Kitingan’s speeches on the issue.

Of the National Budget of almost RM 200 billion for this year, Sabah and Sarawak have been allocated only a measly RM 4 billion each.

It's not known how much of this amount has been actually released to the two states.

Peninsular Malaysia is getting almost RM 192 billion although the 1963 Malaysia Agreement envisaged the all three territories in the Federation -- Sabah, Sarawak, and Peninsular Malaysia -- would be equal partners. Why is the Federal Government funding the development of Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia) at the expense of the people of Sabah and Sarawak, the latter the 2nd poorest state in Malaysia according to the World Bank.

To add insult to injury, Peninsular Malaysia-owned gaming, plantation and shipping companies in Sabah, as in Sarawak, are siphoning away billions every year from the state.

The evil National Cabotage Policy (NCP) continues to enrich a handful of ship owners in Peninsular Malaysia who are linked to MCA and have the Ministry of Transport in the pocket. It's these ship owners who are bankrolling the politics of MCA.

Thousands of hectares of NCR land in Sabah, as in Sarawak, have been seized under one pretext or another by Peninsular Malaysia-owned companies.

The result has been our people becoming landless and being pushed to join the urban poor in the squatter areas created by illegal immigrants.

Here, they are caught in a vicious cycle of poverty, ignorance and disease.
The women folk are forced to sell themselves to help feed their families and keep body and soul together. The men, ashamed and disoriented at their cruel fate, have become kaki botol to cope with unemployment and to forget the harsh realities of life of broken dreams and hopes.

In the ultimate analysis, the Federal Government has no choice but reverse its internal colonization polices in Sabah and Sarawak or we would have no choice but take up the matter with the United Nations Security Council.

In addition, the Federal Government must reimburse the Sabah and Sarawak Governments for the disproportionate revenue taken from the states. This reimbursement, supervised by the UN Security Council, can be spread out over 50 years but must carry compound interest of 8 per cent per annum until full and final settlement.

The restoration of Sabah and Sarawak to the pink of financial health is the key to resolving the grinding poverty of the two states.

Petronas must get out from Sabah and Sarawak and stay out.
The Federal Government must also comply with the Malaysia Agreement and ensure that Borneonisation is carried out as envisaged in the 20/18 Points and the Malaysia Agreement, the Inter Governmental Committee Report and the Cobbold Commission Report.

Malaysia must be brought back to its right premises as a two-tier Federation where Sabah and Sarawak have autonomy with the Federal Government responsible for only defence, foreign affairs and economic planning but only when it comes to these two states.
The parti parti Malaya in Sabah and Sarawak are not part of the solution. They are part of the problem. Local members of the parti parti Malaya in Sabah and Sarawak are traitors who are willing to be proxies and stooges of the orang Malaya in disuniting the people to facilitate internal colonization.

Under the Immigration Act, the orang Malaya are foreigners in Sabah & S'wak.

In that case, the parti parti Malaya are foreign parties.

We don't want to be ruled by foreigners or their local proxies & stooges who are in cahoots with illegal immigrants to marginalize and disenfranchise our people.

That's colonialism.

We want to rule our countries ourselves.

The parti parti Malaya should quit Sabah & S'wak.

It’s time that we stood our own two feet for better or worse.

Star, when it forms the state government, will use the Immigration Act and the 1963 Malaysia Agreement to bar politicians from Peninsular Malaysia from entering Sabah and Sarawak for political purposes.

At the same time, travel restrictions will be placed on local members of the parti parti Malaya operating in Sabah and Sarawak.

Local authorities will be directed not to issue trading licences or approve any facilities to local branches maintained by the parti parti Malaya.
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. We have had enough of these people – illegal immigrants – trying to steal our country from us right under our noses.

The Election Commission and Registrar of Societies were continuing to condone an illegality. They should bar the parti parti Malaya from Sabah and Sarawak.

The EC should also remove the names of Peninsular Malaysian voters from the electoral rolls of Sabah and Sarawak unless they are married to locals, have children, are not members of parti parti Malaya and have permanent residence status.

We cannot allow the parti parti Malaya to steal seats in our respective state assemblies and parliament.

The Malaysia Agreement envisaged that Peninsular Malaysia would have, at the most, no more than one less than two-thirds of the seats in Parliament. It also pledged that Sabah and Sarawak in the collective would have no less than a third plus one seat in Parliament.

We need to restore this balance in Parliament.

Only genuinely local parties, we maintain, can fight for the rights of Sabah and Sarawak as equals -- a legal concept -- of Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia) in the Federation of Malaysia as per the 1963 Malaysia Agreement.

Sabah and Sarawak don't want to be planets revolving around a sun but aspire to be a sun around which other planets revolve.

Sabah and Sarawak being the equals of Malaya can best be seen in the fact that Malaysia has two High Court systems i.e. the High Court of Malaya and the High Court of Borneo with separate jurisdictions. A case in the High Court of Borneo cannot be transferred to the High Court of Malaya and vice versa. Action can be commenced in either Court against anyone no matter where resident.

Both Sabah and Sarawak are the only states to have their own Attorney Generals while Malaysia has one in Putrajaya.
Both Sabah and Sarawak are the only states to have the Ministerial form and system of government, the only other Ministerial form and system being the Federal one in Putrajaya.

The 20 Points related to the Malaysia Agreement clearly states that the head of government in Sabah would be Prime Minister and the Yang di Pertua Negara, the head of state in a secular state constitution. However, these three provisions like many others in the 20 Points are being observed more often than not in the breach.

Sabah and Sarawak retain immigration powers which, in recent years, have been re-defined by administrative policy to mean only the right to deny work permits to Peninsular Malaysians wishing to work in Sabah or Sarawak. Otherwise, both Sabah and Sarawak could impose a blanket ban -- instead of on a case by case basis as at present -- on politicians from both sides of the divide entering the two states "for the purpose of stealing seats".

Hence, the oft made argument in Sabah and Sarawak that only local parties can fight for, secure and ensure the rights of the people in the two states.

The suspicion is that the only reason that the parti parti Malaya are in Sabah and Sarawak is to come to power in Putrajaya.

Seizing control of the Federal Government will remain an elusive dream without the parliamentary seats in Sabah and Sarawak. This reflects the reality that politics in Peninsular Malaysia has irreversibly metamorphosised into a two-party system in Parliament.

The political tsunami of 2008 must be seen as "an Act of God", truly ushering in "a historical window of opportunity for Sabah and Sarawak".

This fact has been acknowledged by both sides of the political divide in the two states but there has been little, by way of dividends, for BN parties in Sabah and Sarawak. What has been noted is Umno continuing to humour BN parties in Peninsular Malaysia in government, the Cabinet and elsewhere at the expense of Sabah and Sarawak.

It remains to be seen whether this translates into substantial anti-BN votes come the 13th GE.

Patently, it cannot continue to be business as usual in Sabah and Sarawak.

Many in Malaysian Borneo believe that a 3rd Force in the Malaysian Parliament, to steer evenly between the Barisan Nasional and the Pakatan Rakyat, is an idea whose time has come.