Star fully committed to united opposition against BN?

“STAR Sabah is fully committed to the United Borneo Alliance (UBA) and a united opposition including SAPP, USNO and Pakatan Rakyat to oust the current Umno/BN federal and state governments” reiterated Edward Linggu, STAR Sabah Information Chief, in response to the recent press reports of Richard Jimmy.

STAR Sabah wish to clarify that while we respect Richard’s personal views, the press reports do not represent the official stand of STAR Sabah.  Perhaps, his reports sadly may have caused some confusion and concerns but we are confident that the people are matured enough to understand the real situation.   For the record, he is not a member of our Supreme Council.

UBA and STAR Sabah has endeavoured to build a strong united local opposition and had even extended official invitations to all local BN component parties, who had sent emissaries for discussions, to join UBA and work together to remove the Umno regime in Sabah.

As for SAPP and STAR, leaders of both parties have had many discussions to work out a joint cooperation to take on the BN in Sabah with the ultimate aim of removing the Umno/BN government.  The Umno/BN government has not only failed to defend Sabah’s rights and autonomy but also failed to fight for Sabah’s rights and interests, amongst others, Sabah’s oil ownership rights, a higher share of the oil revenue and fair distribution of Sabah’s revenue collected by the federal government.

The Umno/BN government has also marginalized natives and failed to uphold and defend native rights particularly land and NCR and the rights and privileges of the natives as enshrined under Article 153 of the Federal Constitution and Article 41 of the Sabah Constitution.

It is not surprising that under the Umno/BN regime, Sabah has descended from the 2nd richest State in 1970 (after Selangor which included Kuala Lumpur then) to now the poorest State despite the State producing some RM19 billion of oil and gas and contributing RM22.7 billion to the federal coffers in 2011.

Many Sabahans have failed to realize that they need to stand united especially in the forthcoming 13th general elections to stand a chance of re-claiming Sabah’s rights and restoration of Sabah’s riches which have been eroded and taken away since the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

At the same time, STAR is very clear that the Sabah local opposition need to work with Pakatan Rakyat to topple the Umno/BN federal government.  Hence, STAR has always advocated working and cooperating with PR both at federal and state levels.

It is sad that in trying to jostle for a better position, local opposition leaders have bad-mouthed STAR with the aim of reducing STAR’s growing support and influence.

Some opposition leaders with NGO links even twist facts like STAR will work with Umno/BN when the truth is that what was said was that if after the elections Umno/BN forms the federal government, the Sabah government (involving STAR) will have no alternative but to work with the federal government.   This is the same as the present State governments of Selangor, Penang, Kedah and Kelantan who have to work with the Umno/BN federal government although they are in the opposition.

Principally, while it is ideal for local parties to contest the local seats, STAR has always adopted a stand for PR to stand in Sabah with the common goal of toppling the Umno/BN federal and state governments.   This was reiterated in a recent letter sent by our Chairman to the PR leaders in the Peninsular.

Of utmost importance is for the Sabah opposition to be united in facing and toppling the current Umno/BN state and federal governments.