Stand Up for Sabah or Stand Aside – Dr. Jeffrey

KOTA KINABALU -“The Sabah government and its Barisan Nasional leaders need to stand up and fulfil their moral and legal responsibilities and obligations to ensure Sabah’s rights and interests in Malaysia as agreed are respected and honoured. If not, it is better for them and in the larger interests of Sabah and Sabahans that they stand aside and allow other BN leaders to take over pending the forthcoming PRU-14,” said Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, in support of the call by Reverend Jerry Dusing, President of the Sabah Council of Churches.

He said, “the call by the Sabah Council of Churches for the Sabah State government to stand fast in defending the rights of Sabahans in accordance with the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and religious freedom is both timely and appropriate. There is now a growing voice of Sabahans for Sabah’s rights to be restored and for the rejection of religious bigotry and extremism from Malaya.”

In particular, the Sabah government need to seek the return of the 40% net revenue derived from Sabah which amounts to tens of billion ringgit each year. The arrears since 1974 would be in the hundreds of billion ringgit.   These revenues are much needed to develop Sabah and for the interests and welfare of Sabahans.

The Sabah Cabinet Ministers and Assistant Ministers and other Sabah BN leaders need to realize first and foremost that they are elected to represent Sabah and the people of Sabah. If they cannot look after the BEST INTERESTS of Sabah and Sabahans, they should have the decency to stand aside or resign with dignity.

There are not elected to be subservient proxies of their political masters in Putrajaya and certainly not elected to give up the rights, interests and welfare of Sabah and Sabahans.

These leaders need to adopt the “Love, Serve and Remember” philosophy where they need to love and uphold the interests and welfare of Sabah and Sabahans and serve them as they were elected to represent and serve Sabah and Sabahans. They need to remember that they are true selves as Sabahans and all things come from God and not prioritize their self-interests or their party’s interests.

Hopefully, they will take the necessary action in the best interests of Sabah and Sabahans which in turn will make Malaysia and Sabah more progressive with a brighter future. If not, it would be better for the people to change the Sabah government in PRU-14.

• Stand up for Sabahan rights, state government urged