UBF ‘agrees’ to back ABU

Luke Rintod

The Borneo Alliance (UBA) is unlikely to support Pakatan Rakyat, prefering to throw its support behind Sabah based parties

LABUAN: The organisors and sponsors of peninsular-based the ‘Anything But Umno’ (ABU) movement, which is calling for the removal of Umno in the next election, are seeking partners in East Malaysia.

Leading civil advocate, Haris Ibrahim (photo), yesterday flew to the Federal Territory of Labuan, defying the Sabah government’s “persona non grata” order slapped on him recently, to hold talks with Sabah political activists led by Daniel John Jambun.

Jambun said they held a series of talks with Haris and that he (Jambun) would report back to two major stakeholders in Sabah’s current opposition front – the United Borneo Front (UBF) and Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) – on what transpired at the meeting.

“We agreed in principle to support this ABU campaign because Umno has shown that it has been making decisions and policies against Sabahans and Sarawakians in the past 48 years we are in this Federation.

“The very fact that both Sabah and Sarawak are the poorest states now speak volumes of what (the) Umno-led Barisan Nasional had done to our gas and oil resources.

“So we agree that Umno must go in this coming general election,” said Jambun who is considered among the most senior leaders in UBF, and possibly also in the reactivated State Reform Party (Star).

Also at the meeting were Sabah activists Michael Liew and famed local rap singer turned activist, Atama.

UBA won’t back Pakatan

Haris, who was barred from entering Sabah as well as Sarawak after he was deemed a “threat to security”, beat the order by entering Labuan, a former Sabah free port that was ceded by Sabah to the federal government and made a federal territory in 1984.

He said that though he faced no problem disembarking, police officers took photographs of him when he arrived.

The ABU campaign in East Malaysia will be known as UBA or United Borneo Alliance.

While ABU organisors in the peninsular are set to back Pakatan Rakyat, state opposition leaders in East Malaysia, especially Sabah, are however backing state-based parties.

Jambun said Haris understood the Borneo Agenda sensitivities and acknowledged that Pakatan in Sabah would face an uphill task to ensure a one-to-one fight with BN in all state seats.

“ABU sponsors want a straight fight in all the 222 Parliamentary seats at stake. But this remains to be ironed out,” Jambun said.

“We in East Malaysia do not want to be taken for granted. Just because we did not want BN or Umno
anymore does not mean that an incoming new federal government would treat us differently from BN and Umno.

“A new government must recognise our legitimate autonomy demands and our special position in the federation,” said Jambun.

It is understood that ABU plans to launch a series of videos nationwide early next year ahead of the general election underscoring all the failures of Umno and BN and the abuse of power by its leaders.

A separate video production for Sabah and Sarawak is expected to be ready for distribution in a few weeks time.