An Orange Book That Went Red In Sabah

WHEN Parti Keadilan Sabah had its convention in Kinarut, and launched its Buku Jingga Sabah (Sabah Orange Book) on March 12, the party leaders thought there was good reason to celebrate and savor the auspicious nature of the occasion. The convention - the first in Sabah after the party's damaging party elections - was intended to be a launching pad for the party's revival in The Land Below the Wind, a day to wipe away as much as possible the still bleeding wounds inflicted on the party by the highly publicized departure of Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan and the exodus of KDM leaders a mere two months ago in January, and by the awful embarrassment with the blunder with Pajudin Nordin.


The convention was a get¬together to forget the past, for rejuvenation and healing for a new beginning. Sabah must be claimed as the fixed deposit for PKR before the next general elections. But as fate would have it, it was not to be. A bad spirit slipped in and propelled Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the party President no less, to utter the unbelievable, that when in power sitting in Putrajaya, Pakatan Rakyat will give permanent residence status to the illegal immigrants in Sabah! Even the very thought of it repels the senses and to have it uttered as a policy is outrageous.

The immediate reactions were no less than political thunderclaps under the specter of dark clouds, brewing a political storm whose winds will surely uproot the people's confidence and muddy the path for PKR for years to come. And what a waste, seeing that the finely tuned promises of" 10 reformations for Sabah within 100 days after Pakatan gets control of Putrajaya" looked and sounded attractive enough to at least raise the subdued party spirit in the state, and even maybe help to bring PKR back on track.

SAPP's Youth chief, Edward Dagul, reacted with "Illegals are illegals.... If illegals are to be granted PR status, then even more illegals will be attracted to Sabah, adding to the woes of Sabah."

And Datuk Johnny Mositun, Parti Bersatu Sabah's Information Chief. angrily said that "Only Sabah has the right to grant permanent residence... It is an insult and a blatant disregard for the rights and feelings of Sabahans to even suggest that PR status would be granted to illegal immigrants in Sabah. It is when more shocking that this proposal comes from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) which aspires to govern the country. PKR and the opposition in general have been claiming that many foreigners in Sabah have acquired citizenship through dubious means... and demanding that the BN Government... to get rid of the large number of illegal immigrants.

Now she is making an about-turn and saying openly that PKR will give them PR status. One can only guess at the logic and the motive behind all this."

Dr. Jeffrey who is still getting used to being a non¬PKR leader, could not contain his aversion, and joined the chorus of protests, saying the blunder was "a glaring proof that PKR is still very ignorant about what we Sabahans want, and that the party is not fit to govern the country.... It will be a huge mistake which will far worsen the present situation. Clearly, it is a very dangerous suggestion by MR."

The blunder from Wan Azizah was not a gaff, nor a slip ofthe tongue. Obviously, she was serious about it. and that the idea must have been mooted as a policy sometime before the convention. Some PKR insiders are saying the idea was actually the brainchild of local PKR leaders, including  KDM Datuks, who pushed the idea to Wan Azizah, which if true, speaks volumes about the atrocious short-sightedness and very low-level of political wisdom of those native leaders. One could utter in total incredulity: What were they thinking! But ultimately, the discredit must rest on Wan Azizah as the one to have weighed the proposal - which many see as appalling and uttered it as a supposedly effective modus operandi to solve the mother of all problems in Sabah.

One wonders why is it that, of late, almost every time PKR senior leader steps into Sabah they end up making unbelievable mistakes, as if it has been afflicted with a jinx? Is Sabah now PKR's haunted state where even its angels should fear to tread? And what errors will they make on the next trip here?

As in major public blunders, this is another exemplary case in which all efforts at damage control will fail or make it worse. There is little point in defusing the political bomb if it has exploded. and the chain reaction has gone viral, causing a distancing of hearts and minds of' the people, and worse, alienating even staunch supporters.

Gaibin Ransoi, the divisional deputy chairman of Tuaran, was despondent and burdened with inconsolable disappointment, saying the suggestion was "gila" (insane) and a desperate effort at winning the election at the great expense of Sabahans. "I am in PKR to fight for social justice and to defend the rights of the people of Sabah, not to help illegal immigrants become citizens," he said. "To do that means I am going against my conscience and violating the trust of the people." He is not the only PKR leader now shaken with dismay and disillusionment.

The explanation by Thamrin Hj Azini that it was not a blanket offer is lame and belated, a futile effort at trying to cushion the destructive impact. And the confused explanation and rationalization of the proposal by PKR`s Youth member, Jafery Jamiol, who said that the procedure for awarding the PR status will be tightly controlled under “rules and regulation to be fulfilled before they become citizens” only made the whole thing worse because he was then equating PR status with citizenship! He only achieved to make the whole thing even more frightening to right-thinking Sabahans. The best thing to do , which is to apologize and admit the proposal was a bad mistake, would still have serious political repercussions, but it would be better than to keep explaining and rationalizing the stupidity.

Perhaps this is a case which fits the warning in the Malay proverb: “terlajak perahu boleh diundur, terlajak kata buruk padahnya” ( A boat gone too far can be reversed, but a wrong word uttered will bring disaster). And to the people it is case of “terluka tangan boleh diubati, terluka hati, tiada ubatnya” (A wound on the hand can be healed but a wound in the hearth lasts forever).

Sadly for PKR, the Kinarut convention will go down in the party's history as one which will be unforgettable for the wrong reason. It was the day they now wish never happened. And  how they must be wishing and heaving with deep sighs, thatMarch 12 was just a bad dream. But wan Azizah may have done us a favour at PKR's expense – to reconfirm for us the folly of thinking we need Peninsular parties as our saviours. She inadvertently emboldened us further to stand by the belief that local parties can look after our interests better than KL ¬based parties can, and that the flag of the Borneo Agenda must be carried by a truly Borneo Alliance of Sabahans. and Sarawakians. The age of political subjugation by outsiders is over.

Following the bungles that spilled out from the recent PKR party elections, in which the top party leadership wantonly abandoned the principles of democracy, transparency and meritocracy in favour of authoritarian measures to “elect” leaders and the party`s persistence on holding on the autocratic power to appoint state leaders, this new misstep by the party President appears to have confirmed the idea that PKR leaders in faraway Kuala Lumpur do not know Sabah.

They have no idea about what we rally want and are very far from being able to wmpathize with us and fathom our souls or be able to empathize with us and fathom our souls or be able to visualize our dreams and aspirations. 

No! Peninsular leaders will ever know what it feels to be a Sabahan. Not if it takes another half a century. (By Raymond Tombung)