Lahad Datu Stand off: Najib should bear the responsibility

Looking back at my past articles, I don't know whether I should feel vindicated that I had made a correct prediction.

I had joined a media trip to Sabah which took place in mid-August 2008 in conjunction with the visit of the then Deputy Prime Minister cum Defence Minister Najib Razak to Sabah’s forward bases.

During a media briefing session on 10 August 2008, the forward base senior military officer Commander Hanafi, who was the Markas Angkatan Tugas Bersama 2 (MATB 2) Chief of Staff, told the media that there were six external security threats scattered offshore Sabah, namely Abu Sayyaf, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Moro National Liberation Front, Misuari Breakaway Group, ransom-seeking criminal groups and Bangsa Sulu Royal Army (BSRA).

Jeffrey wants Orang Asal, Allies as ‘Force to be Reckoned With’ in mainstream politics

By Joe Fernandez
Activists from Sabah strongman Jeffrey Kitingan's various NGOs are mercilessly bludgeoning both sides of the political divide, even mosquito parties, with sledgehammers of sorts. Apparently, Jeffrey is leaving nothing to chance as the countdown to the 13th General Elections is set to begin after the Christmas and New Year festive cheers. This is politics in the jungle at its best.

Jeffrey's inner circle points out that even if the other Opposition and ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) "did not ask for it", they would be "morally obliged to make mincemeat of all those who are against the Agenda Borneo". The Agenda Borneo, in a nutshell, stands against everything that the "agenda parti parti Malaya in Borneo" or "Agenda Malaya" stands for in Sabah and Sarawak. The Borneon in Jeffrey alleges that the Agenda Malaya is a thinly-disguised policy of internal colonisation in Sabah and Sarawak, waged against the Orang Asal in particular -- Murut and Dusun including Kadazan or urban Dusun in Sabah and Dayak in Sarawak -- and Borneons in general.

Sabah security in fits-and-starts

By Joe Fernandez
Sabah security in fits-and-starts just won’t do.

We are now told that the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) will be responsible for security along the newly-created Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM) stretching from Kudat in the North to Tawau in the south-east corner, past the wolf’s mouth segment on the map of the territory.

Mindef takes over from the all-powerful Prime Minister’s Department (PMD) which had hitherto been apparently responsible for security in Sabah. Indeed, it appears that the reason why Malaysian security forces have been slow in responding to the Lahad Datu intrusion and Standoff may be more due to the fact that the PMD was solely responsible for security in Sabah.

Cobold Commission never established that majority Sabahans wanted Malaysia

OPINION: In 1963, Sabah was bundled with Sarawak into a strategic arrangement between Britain and Malaya to consolidate Britain's colonial territories and economic interests and replace British colonial rule in this region with Malayan rule in the newly created Malaysia.

When the Malaysia proposal was announced in 1961 by Tunku Abdul Rahman, this immediately touched off local and regional controversy and opposition to "Malaysia" as a neo-colonial scheme to prolong colonial rule- especially by Indonesia and the Philippines. This led to Indonesia's Konfrontasi against Malaysia and the Philippines claim on Sabah.

Sultan of Sulu--A "SHOCKING" REVELATION!!!----amazing

An interview with relatives about the background history of the 72 YEAR OLD RAJA MUDA AGBIIMUDDIN KIRAM who is LEADING THE SULU ARMY IN LAHAD DATU, reveals something which ALL SABAHANS had "SUSPECTED" & FEARED THE MOST...

... THE SULU PRINCE "HOLDS A MALAYSIAN SABAH IC"!!!

Quoting from the interview write-up...

"When President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law all over the Philippines on Sept. 21, 1972, Datu Punjungan Kiram, a crown prince then, HID OFF TO SABAH

Charges against Tian Chua will expedite BN's downfall, says Star

By Daniel John Jambun
INANAM : The swift action by the BN government to charge opposition leader Tian Chua for sedition over his fair remark on the Lahad Datu incidence is a black day for democratic Malaysia and would undoubtedly ensure all right-thinking Malaysians to vote for opposition at the coming polls.

It will expedite the downfall of Umno regime which clearly practiced selective prosecution and dirty tactics all these years.

PI Bala passes away

Private investigator P Balasubramaniam, who rocked the na
tion which his statutory declarations on the murder of
Altantuya Shaariibuu, has passed away.

KUALA LUMPUR: Private investigator P Balasubramaniam, who rocked the nation which his statutory declarations on the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu, has passed away.

Both PKR vice-president N Surendran and Subang MP R Sivarasa confirmed this.

“I am on my way to the Sungai Buloh Hospital. I don’t have the details as yet,” Sivarasa told FMT.

It is learnt that he died in an ambulance on his way to the Sungai Buloh Hospital from his house in Rawang.

13th GE may reflect ‘fallout’ from Lahad Datu Standoff

By Joe Fernandez
It cannot be denied that for various reasons the on-going Lahad Datu Standoff may have an effect on the forthcoming 13th General Election results in Sabah.

The jury is still out on the question of who stands to “gain” most and who stands to “lose” i.e. if the General Election in eastern Sabah is held at the same time as in the rest of the Territory and country.

Judging from former Sabah Chief Minister Harris Salleh’s reported appeal letter this week to Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein Onn, the police are seizing the Malaysian personal documents of Suluks in Semporna and Lahad Datu and tearing them up before their very eyes. Apparently, these documents include IMM13 immigration documents issued to refugees and MyPRs or the red-coloured Permanent Residence Identity Cards.

Retain Abdul Rahman as KB MP, says PBS Sendelun

Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan

By Ezra Haganez  
KOTA BELUD :   A senior leader of a Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) branch here had appealed to Chief Minister Musa Aman to retain current MP for Kota Belud, Abdul Rahman Dahlan, as Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate for the area in the coming election.

"On behalf of members and supporters of Kota Belud BN component members especially from PBS Taginambur Jaya branch, i called upon the state leadership to affirm the retention of our current MP as BN candidate here," said Robert Meisin Sendelun in a statement issued in Kota Belud Thursday.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio becomes Pope Francis I

White smoke from Sistine Chapel heralds shock decision
to elect first Latin American, first Jesuit and first
Francis to lead world's Catholics

At 7.06pm, a rain-swept but packed St Peter’s Square erupted with a mix of joy and not a little shock as clouds of white smoke told the crowds – and the rest of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics – that a new pontiff had been chosen on just the second day of voting.

But the noise that greeted the billowing smoke was nothing compared to the sound that met Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires when he appeared on the balcony as the 266th successor of St Peter.

By 8.10pm local time when the newly elected Pope Francis I emerged in white papal robes to cheers of “Viva il Papa” (“Long live the Pope”), the crowds stretched back from the vast Piazza way to the end of Via della Conciliazione, the 500-metre long road connecting the Vatican to the Tiber.