KOTA KINABALU - “Sabahans and Sarawakians need to unite and assert themselves to reclaim Sabah and Sarawak rights and to untangle themselves from the on-going “Malaysian Mess” which is getting messier with serious repercussions” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, UBF Chairman in his keynote address on the 4th anniversary celebration of UBF held on Sunday in Keningau.
According to Dr. Jeffrey, while parts of Malaya are submerged in the raging floods, Malaysia is now submerged in a sea of Messes, comprising, Political, Economy, Corruption and Financial, Socio-cultural, Constitutional and Administrative, Lawlessness and Anarchy, Security and the pressing Borneo/Sabah Mess.
In explaining each Mess, Dr. Jeffrey provided the support and corroborating evidence, mainly provided by the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister’s Department, government agencies and other international organizations including the United Nations as well as statements by the federal Ministers and Umno leaders.
“In the current technologically advanced social media, what is happening in Malaysia, the whole world would know at a click and the federal government cannot hide the Malaysian Mess from the world” said Dr. Jeffrey.
Politically and constitutionally, the federal government is digging its own grave by refusing to acknowledge Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners and refusing the listen to the voices of the people in Borneo or to address their grievances. They are compounding the situation by threatening them with arrests and amendments to the Sedition Act to make it seditious to voice the rights of the Borneo States. The selective prosecution of political opponents with immunity of Umno and Umno-linked racial and religious bigots is also contributing to lawlessness and rising anarchy.
Umno ministers and leaders are condoning and sponsoring religious and racial extremism which will tear a peaceful and harmonious country apart. Worse still, the religious and racial extremists are steering Malaysia towards a Taliban/Islamic State in the making.
On the economy and financial fronts, Malaysia is a disaster in the making with a bloated civil service, that is under-performing and over-staffed, in numbers and in percentage of civil servants to population ratio. It has also drained the finances of the nation with operating expenditure accounting for 79%-80% of the national Budget leaving only 20%-21% for development which will impact a lower multiplier effect and stifle economic growth.
Economic mismanagement, corruption and excesses in spending have raised the national debt from about RM94 billion in 2000 to about RM700 billion currently.
With the current 40% drop in oil prices which will reduce national revenues, the depreciating value of the ringgit, implementation of GST and higher inflation with higher costs of living, the majority of the ordinary people will end up poorer and burdened and add to the already widening rich-poor gap which is currently at its highest, both locally and regionally.
The Borneo/Sabah Mess is further threatening to split the country into two or three parts. Threats of sedition arrests will not quell or reduce the growing unhappiness and disenfranchisement of the Borneo people over the Malaysia Agreement, oil and gas rights, taking of revenue and other incomes, widening disparity in development and budget allocations and the ever-threatening mother of all problems, illegal immigrants and foreigners being inserted as phantom voters.
“The federal Minister and the Attorney General may downplay the numbers and impact of these illegals, both IC holders and voters, but all right-thinking Sabahans know how bad the situation is. As rightly said by Tengku Razaleigh, only God knows how many foreigners carry blue ICs” said Dr. Jeffrey.
The lopsided 2015 Budget allocation of RM32 billion for 2 additional LRT lines from Selayang to Putrajaya and Damansara to Klang on top of the RM36 billion MRT under construction, and another RM16.25 billion for 4 new highways in Malaya with nothing for Sabah and Sarawak will only widen the development disparity.
“Grinding poverty in Sabah and Sarawak, additional burdens and costs caused by the crippling cabotage policy, non-implementation of Borneonization policy, Malayanization and Malaynization of the natives, the Kalimah Allah issue, the security problems and the marginalization of natives and failure to empower the natives caused by the Melayu/bumiputra policy will only add more fuel to the raging fires in the heart of Sabahans and Sarawakians while the federal government maintains silence and non-action from Putrajaya” added Dr. Jeffrey.
Project IC and the dubious granting of ICs and MyKads to foreigners which are found on the Lahad Datu terrorists which included Umno members as well as murders and criminals and foreigners acting as security guards are a monster created by the federal government. The monster is now slow but surely rearing its ugly head not only in Sabah but also in the Peninsula.
In winding up, Dr. Jeffrey informed that UBF will step up efforts to educate and enlighten Sabahans and empower them to unite and fight for the restoration of their rights as well as to determine their future and the destiny of Sabahans, which at the same time will extract them from the Malaysian Mess.
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