163 SPF members join STAR, 18,400 to follow suit

Sabah STAR Chairman with former SPF leaders and members

KOTA KINABALU:  State Reform Party (STAR) reaped a bounty yesterday (Sunday) when 163 leaders and members of the now defunct Sabah People’s Front (SPF) at a luncheon at Mayflower restaurant along Jalan Bundusan here.

In welcoming their entry, Sabah STAR Chairman, Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, said that the members of SPF were very disappointed for having been played out to the point that they lost their political platform when it was taken over by other people. SPF was somehow taken over by a Sarawak group and its name was changed to Sarawak Workers’ Party.
 

WHAT WENT BEFORE: Sultan of Sulu’s 9 principal heirs

MANILA, Philippines—In 1939, a decision issued by the high court of North Borneo named the nine principal heirs of the last sultan of Sulu, whose descendants had been pressing their claim to Sabah.

Known as the 1939 Macaskie Judgment, the nine principal heirs of Sultan Jamalul Kiram II were Datu Punjungan Kiram, Datu Esmail Kiram, Dayang Dayang Piandao Kiram, Dayang Dayang Sitti Rada Kiram, Princess Tarhata Kiram, Princess Sakinur-In Kiram, Dayang Dayang Putli Jahara Kiram, Dayang Dayang Sitti Mariam Kiram and Mora Napsa.

Jamalul II’s father, Sultan Jamalul Ahlam, leased Sabah in 1878 to British North Borneo Co. Under the agreement, the company would pay 5,300 Mexican gold pieces a year to the Kingdom of Sulu. It continued to do so until 1936, when Jamalul II died.

God, as opposed to religion

Okay, back to the issue of Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to Aisha when she was said to be just 6 years old or 9 years old or whatever. Of the many stories in Islam this appears to be the single most-favourite story that non-Muslims will raise to mock the Prophet and call him a paedophile, child rapist, pervert, criminal who would be sent to jail if he did that today, and so on.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Agnostic (noun)

1. A person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause and that the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.

2. A person who denies or doubts the possibility of ultimate knowledge in some area of study.

3. A person who holds neither of two opposing positions on a topic.

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Police escorts a danger to motorists

Why must a VIP get right of way at the expense
of law abiding rakyat who are oftentimes
rough-housed to the side of road? asks an activist

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: Police, especially traffic police, escorting VIPs on Sabah roads are being accused of endangering other road users when conducting their duties. A social activist said he recently almost met with an accident when overzealous police escorts forced him to the verge of the road to give way to a VIP speeding towards him

Donny Yapp, a director of UK-based NGO, Borneo Rights International (BRI), said the policemen simply “bulldozed” their way through the traffic and confused other motorists on a highway by waving their hands and pointing their fingers at them to get off the road.

Yapp said he was shocked earlier this week when a police outrider suddenly appeared alongside his vehicle frantically waving and pointing to one side of the road and the divider.

A case of scratching each other’s back?

By Jude Wang

In 1985, Tun Mustapha said perhaps the federal government
wanted to use Manila's claim on Sabah against its people as
a bargaining chip to make them behave.

KOTA KINABALU: With the 13th General Election drawing near, it seems to be a fishy coincidence that the Sultan of Sulu and his family have suddenly decided to revive their claim to Sabah as part of their ancestral right.

In an interview with the Philippines’ Daily Inquirer, Crown Prince Rajah Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram, reportedly said that they will have to pursue the Sabah claim on their own since the Philippines government appeared to have ignored their demand to include their claim to Sabah as an “integral and essential” aspect of the peace agreement involving “any armed group in Mindanao”.

What really made Pope Benedict XVI resigns ?

Did a Cross-Dressing Priest Sex Ring
Bring Down Benedict XVI?

Of all the rumors floating around about just why Pope Benedict XVI is hanging up his camauro, one has taken on a life of its own. According to several well-placed vaticanisti—or Vatican experts—in Rome, Benedict is resigning after being handed a secret red-covered dossier that included details about a network of gay priests who work inside the Vatican, but who play in secular Rome. The priests, it seems, are allegedly being blackmailed by a network of male prostitutes who worked at a sauna in Rome’s Quarto Miglio district, a health spa in the city center, and a private residence once entrusted to a prominent archbishop. The evidence reportedly includes compromising photos and videos of the prelates—sometimes caught on film in drag, and, in some cases, caught “in the act.”

NGO: Mengapa rakyat Sulu mudah masuk Sabah?

PETALING JAYA: Presiden Gabungan NGO Sabah, Androd Sadian berkata, rakyat Sabah tidak gembira dengan pencerobohan `tentera’ Sulu ke atas wilayah negeri itu.

Rakyat Sabah, katanya mahu pihak berkuasa menyiasat mengapa pengikut Raja Kesultanan Sulu begitu mudah masuk ke Lahad Datu serta beberapa kawasan lain di sekitarnya.

“Apa yang menyebabkan mereka berani masuk ke Sabah dengan jumlah yang besar dan dari mana mereka mendapat senjata api.

Pencerobohan Lahad Datu, apa kata penduduk...

Credit to  Facebook 1 Suara Sabah

Sejurus selepas berita mengenai pencerobohan orang asing yang bersenjata di kawasan Pantai Tanduo berdekatan Felda Sahabat 17 tersebar, suasana di bandar Lahad Datu bertukar menjadi sibuk dengan aktiviti-aktiviti pihak berkuasa.

Menurut sumber dari penduduk Lahad Datu, ekoran daripada kejadian itu, banyak trak-trak tentera kelihatan bergerak ke arah Jalan Silabukan menuju ke lokasi kejadian.

Di samping itu, tentera bersenjata turut dilihat berjalan kaki membuat rondaan bandar. Rondaan helikopter polis juga dilihat dibuat berterusan. Pemeriksaan polis turut dilakukan di beberapa kawasan bandar terutamanya Jalan Silabukan.

Don’t Harm Sultan’s Men, Nur Warns Malaysia

By Edd K. Usman

MANILA, Philippines — Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founding Chairman Nur Misuari yesterday appealed to Malaysia to settle the Sabah standoff peacefully and warned that his group will come to the aid of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III’s followers if blood spills.

“I hope they will not harm them. They (Kiram’s followers) are our brothers. If one drop of their blood is spilled, we might be forced to come to their aid,” Misuari said.

“Please don’t touch them, give them a friendly and brotherly treatment,” Misuari appealed.

Re-imagining a World Beyond Capitalism and Communism

by Arundhati Roy   

Here in India, even in the midst of all the violence and greed, there is still hope. If anyone can do it, we can. We still have a population that has not yet been completely colonized by that consumerist dream.

We have a living tradition of those who have struggled for Gandhi's vision of sustainability and self-reliance, for socialist ideas of egalitarianism and social justice. We have Ambedkar's vision, which challenges the Gandhians as well as the socialists in serious ways. We have the most spectacular coalition of resistance movements, with their experience, understanding and vision.