Media should not play up Mahathir

By Joe Fernandez 

The way former Prime Mahathir Mohamad has been carrying on since retiring, keeping himself very much in the public eye, it appears that he wants his old job back and this time perhaps until he dies and that could be at 97+. That could be the real reason why the 13th General Election has been unduly delayed.

Mahathir is now 88 years old.

Mahathir's latest visit was to Sabah where he visited the troops in Lahad Datu besides delivering a lecture at UMS on the RCI.

Sabah and the Sulu claims

Rozan Yunos of The Brunei Times

Succeeding Sultans of Brunei have denied that northern Borneo was given to Sulu, and only the
weight of Sulu tradition supports the claim. The weight of Brunei tradition challenges it.Pictures: Courtesy of Rozan Yunos

THE 1968 Programme Book for the Coronation of His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Muizzaddin Waddaulah as the 29th Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, had two interesting documents inserted inside. The documents were reproduction of two treaties taken from microfilm kept at the Public Record Office in London.

Illegal & Illogical

After having failed his exam in "Logistics and Organization", a student goes and confronts his lecturer about it.

Student: "Sir, do you really understand anything about the subject?" 

Professor: "Surely I must. Otherwise I would not be a professor!" 

Student: "Great, well then I would like to ask you a question. 

‘Najib not sincere over Allah issue’

By Luke Rintod of FMT

Parti Bersatu Sabah must explain why it allowed the Sabah
State Assembly in 1992 to pass an enactment barring use
of the term “Allah” and several related words.

KOTA KINABALU: Pressure is piling on Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to speak plainly on his government’s stand on the use of the word ‘Allah’ by non-Muslims in Sabah and Sarawak.

The word has become so politically loaded in the peninsula that failing to acquiesce to native Christians insistence in the two Borneo states that they be allowed to continue to use it in their worship threatens to strip away any electoral support his Barisan Nasional government may enjoy among them.

His detractors in Sabah were quick to deride the prime minister after he implied on Friday that he opposed the use of the word ‘Allah’ by all non-Muslims.

Farmer slashed by Taib-linked men

Surik Muntai and 300 other landowners from 17 longhouses
from Melikin in Serian district are suing a company linked
to two PBB leaders for encroaching into their NCR land.

KUCHING: A director of an oil palm plantation company, linked to two leaders in Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu has been detained for allegedly assaulting a 67-year-old farmer over a native customary rights land issue.

Serian police confirmed that Andrew Wong, a director in United Teamtrade Sdn Bhd was arrested three days ago and is currently in remand.

Wong together with three other security personal, one allegedly armed with a  parang, had attacked farmer Surik Muntai last Friday while he was waiting to pick up his son from the Sungai Menyan primary school.

He was severely wounded and suffered a broken right arm and legs in the attack. He is now recuperating in the Sarawak General Hospital, Kuching.

‘Agbimuddin will be extradited’

Malaysians in Sabah who wanted security could surely
see that the government had acted speedily in dealing
with the threats, said former prime minister
Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

LAHAD DATU: Malaysia will push for Agbimuddin Kiram, a former Sabah assistant district officer who led the Sulu invasion to allegedly reclaim Sabah, to be extradited from the Philippines.

Agbimuddin is believed to have escaped the tight security dragnet and returned to the Philippines.

Speaking to reporters here yesterday, Sabah police chief Hamza Taib said Malaysia was confident of bring Agbimuddin back to face charges “even if he is there (in the Philippines)”.

“Even if he is there, we won’t face a problem because we have undertaken an investigation under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 against those under detention.

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.