Sabah Lost More Than It Gained from Malaysia

Kota Kinabalu: “It is incredible and almost unbelievable reading the reasons and excuses given by federalist leaders from Sabah and federal leaders across the South China Sea. It is as though Sabah has never had it so good or any better if not for forming Malaysia there would be no progress and no development” asked Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief, commenting on the various statements as though Sabah will be without development, be bankrupt or eaten up by its neighbours or infiltrated with Islamic State (IS) militants bent on taking over Sabah and creating an Islamic caliphate and moving back to the dark ages.

They just refuse to accept the accept the stark reality that Sabah lost more than it gained from federating with Sarawak and Malaya to form Malaysia. In fact, in many aspects, the damage suffered by Sabah and Sabahans is almost irreversible and almost beyond repair.

The demography and political franchise has been totally changed with the population re-engineering and reverse ethnic cleansing through Project IC/Mahathir. Up to today, the RCI report has not been released and no action taken where there have been volumes of evidence that ICs and MyKads were dubiously given out, many to those foreign immigrants but reported to be born again in Sabah.

Even many of the Tanduo intruders were buried in various places in Sabah according to their birth-places in their ICs, many of which are Umno members and local branch leaders.

The security threat is a monster created by the federal government’s covert operations to train and arm the muslim insurgency including the MNLF and Abu Sayyaf in Southern Philippines. Why is it a wonder that they may be alleged to be supporting IS militants when our own Prime Minister calls for Umno members to follow the example of the IS militants.

Can the federal government be trusted to safeguard the security of Sabah given the history of their involvement and causation of the insecurity? It even had the audacity to negotiate with the Tanduo intruders for weeks and only took action after a public outcry against the negotiations.

It is sad that due to the game played by the federal government, our young men and women in the security forces are put in harm’s way as can be seen in the Tanduo intrusion and the cross-border kidnappings.

Once a proud and rich nation in the 1970s behind only Selangor (with Kuala Lumpur still part of the State) and even lending money to the federal government to launch Malaysia Airlines in 1974, it is now the poorest in the nation with over 40% of the nation’s poor. This is despite contributing billions in oil revenue yearly to Petronas and the federal government. Even then, calls for increase in the oil cash payment have fallen on deaf ears in Putrajaya.

From an equal partner, Sabah is now down-graded to a “negri” with His Excellency TYT Yang DiPertua Negara demoted to Yang DiPertua Negri and the State relegated to be the 12th State under Malaya renamed as Malaysia.

“Where is the development that was promised to Sabah during the formation?”

“Everywhere in Sabah, there is a lack of basic amenities, “air gravity” or gravity-channelled water instead of clean treated water, lack of electrification and frequent black-outs even in Kota Kinabalu and gravel roads instead of sealed highways.

In the whole of Kota Kinabalu, there are only 5 flyovers and the federal government has done nothing to build much needed flyovers and interchanges to alleviate the growing traffic jams.

Promises of development funds and billions of allocations are mere lip service and rhetorics. The DPM promised RM1 billion for school repairs in Sabah and Sarawak and all the State received was RM15.4 million.

Billions are collected in revenues from Sabah, including often through the head-offices of companies registered in the Peninsula and deemed to be income from there when the profits are derived from Sabah. Under the Federal Constitution, Sabah is entitled to a net 40% of the revenues collected from Sabah and all Sabah received was a big “0”.

Sabah would have been better developed if it had control of its own revenue and the oil resources. All this talk that Sabah has progressed and received development is utter nonsense.

Even the Sabah government is not spared. Instead of being appointed by the State Assembly from the people of Sabah, the Chief Minister is now appointed by the President of Umno. Before this, it was a merry-go-round of rotation every 2 years decided from Putrajaya.

On the ground, the peace and harmony of multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural Sabah is now threatened by the religious and racist bigots, extremists and fanatics from the Peninsula, bent on creating a Malay unitary state in Sabah.

The federation is turned into a unitary state and Umno-led federal government is slowly turning Malaysia into a police-state dictatorial regime. Even the people who are airing their grievances are threatened with arrests and accused to be trouble-makers.

The list of more losses is still long. All factors considered, despite the rosy picture of progress and development and the alleged threats of insecurity, Sabah and Sabahans have lost more than it gained from the federation. Remaining in Malaysia without a review and revisiting the Malaysia Agreement and restoring Sabah’s rights will be a nightmare. Brunei and Singapore have proven that they are better off on their own and without being swallowed by militants, chaos or insecurity.