CM should sue those politicizing illegals

By Daniel John

The Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Aman, in a speech this week had said that the opposition is politicizing the issue of illegal immigrants, and that the BN leaders should go to the ground more to explain issues to the people. This is another one of those talks by BN leaders asking their leaders to go and “answer the slanders of the opposition” (pergi dan tangkis tohmanan-tohmahan pembangkang). Note that tohmah, according to Kamus Milenium, is “tuduhan atau anggapan buruk yang berasaskan syak tanpa bukti nyata” or slander. But most of the time the media translates “tohmanan-tohmahan” as “lies”, and we seldom here BN leaders say “pembohongan-pembohongan pembangkang” because “tohmahan” is better for them since it paints the opposition as evil-hearted slanderers (pemfitnah), and because “tohmahan” doesn’t suggest that they are liars. But truth is truth and there is nothing you can do to escape it. It always catches up with you in the end. And the truth will trap and punish you.


What I find most unbelievable is that the after years and years of the illegals issue, the opposition is now accused of politicizing this issue as if it is something new and a lie. It is as if we are making it up and that there is no proof of the opposition’s complaints about the illegals. The CM also took a shot at the opposition as if the opposition leaders are slanderers and liars.

But that being the case, if we are lairs and slanderers of the worst kind, people who have defamed and assassinated the characters of the BN leaders, who have smeared their names with false accusations, why on earth don’t they just go ahead sue us? We have been accusing them of creating the illegals problems for many years now, but how come all they do is call us liars? Why not settle it once and for all, fight it out in the courts, so they can get a few million and drive us bankrupt?

In fact we have not even accused them verbally! We have put our exposes on paper, on hard print, which can be used as evidences to sue us to kingdom come. For example, this is a quote from Dr. Chong Eng Leong’s book, Lest We Forget, p. 25: “Hassnar Ebrahim – a former Sekong State Election BN candidate frtom Berjaya and Sekong [Native Chief] and an ex-ISA detainee … revealed in the last two books [by Mutalib M.D.] about [the] mechanics of how foreigners were issued Sabah Blue ICs. There was a meeting in January 1986 chaired by the late Dato’ Megat Junid… Present were: former Ketua Setiausaha Negara Tun Sri Ahmad Sarji, three top guns from Bukit Aman Police, Sabah Director of Immigration Datuk Dusmi Ibrahim, Ketua Pengarah Immigration Negara Datuk Halim Harun, Timbalan Ketua Pengarah Pendaftaran Negara, Ketua Setiuasaha Sulit Azmin, Datuk Yahya Lampong and Hassnar himself….

“Jabar Khan – also an ex-ISA detainee who disclosed that there was a Sabah UMNO Special Task Force in 1991 and the office bearers for 1991-1993 were as follows: Director: Datuk Musa Aman, the currently sabah Chief Minister; Deputy Director: Datuk Yahya Hussein; Secretary: Jabar Khan himself; Treasurer: the late Datuk Malek Chua.

“The job of this Task Force was to recruit foreigners who were then issued Malaysian ICs and then registered and UMNO members and registered in Sabah electoral rolls. The target was 30 constituencies (out of 48) to ensure that by the next state general election PBS would be removed from power with the help of those phantom voters.”

So there! In additions to all the books written by Mutalib, this passage from one book alone should have triggered the BN leaders to drag Dr. Chong and Mutalib to court, but how come that hasn’t happened, and will not happen? Because it is TRUE, and Dr. Chong and Mutalib only have one thing as their legal defence – the truth! And this is one thing the BN leaders just can’t face – the truth.

Now the people realize that the issue is not just that there are illegals walking about which the Federal and State governments are not doing all it can to eradicate, but also that the State and Federal leaders were the ones who started it all. Now the question is: Are we in the opposition guilty of politicizing it or aren’t the BN leaders the ones bearing the great and unforgivable SIN of PURPOSELY and MALICIOUSLY creating the problem since more than 20 years ago, and that they are still doing it?

The other question is: Who should be condemned, the opposition or the BN?

What can BN leaders do to defend themselves against this very well documented fact of history? Don’t they realize that a hundred years from now the history books of Sabah will be written with their names and picture in there labelled as traitors to their own people? How long do they think they can continue to lie to themselves and to the people? I really wonder how those Christian leaders in BN go to church on Sundays and pray while they are killing the future of their own people.

It is the BN leaders who are the liars and traitors. But why are we the ones called slanderers and liars when in fact we are the ones telling the truth? Where is their concscience? And don’t they have any shame at all?

DANIEL JOHN JAMBUN
STAR Sabah Deputy Chairman, and Advisor to the UK-Based Human Rights Foundation Malaysia

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The people are no longer afraid of BN leaders

Personally I am very happy that Musa is asking the BN leaders to go on the ground more to explain issues raised by the opposition to the people, especially about the illegal immigrants which he said we in the opposition have been politicizing. In fact I would really like to be there when those BN leaders go the kampungs and tell the people, “Dear people, don’t believe the opposition when they talk about the illegals. They are liars and making up a lot of stories…” and right there in the crowd there are some illegals trying very hard to look and sound like locals.

Why is Musa asking the BN leaders to turun padang? Because all these while they have stopped going into the kampungs. There is hardly anymore such thing as BN party ceramahs anymore. Well, they try to organize them but the people don’t come even if food and drinks are served. Even if Tan sri Pairin himself goes into a KDM kampong, they will no longer come to kiss his hand like in the old days. So in order to create a crowd the BN buses have to carry the BN members to the venues. But even by doing this the so-called BN supporters feel it is a waste of time. That is why in some place where they tried to have ceramahs, only a handful, or a dozen or two turned up. Forget about having hundreds coming.

There was one ceramah held in Inanam recently and an old man stood up and asked why the BN keeps talking about developments with millions of ringgit in allocations, but the small old folks monthly assistance hadn’t been paid for a long time already? The BN leaders couldn’t answer. Their tongues got frozen and their jaws were hanging in embarassment! And this is the problem for the BN leaders everywhere they go. The people nowadays are very clever – they know what to say and ask. They are no longer afraid of even the CM, and they have simple but very tough questions the BN leaders just can’t answer. They go to BN ceramahs to take shots at the leaders, not to listen and clap their hands. And after all, they already know what do the BN leaders will tell the people. Only two things – developments, developments and that the oppositions are liars, can only make empty promises but can’t fulfil them.

So what’s the point for the BN to go to the ground? If holding ceramahs is useless and will only invite embarrassing unanswerable questions, what else can the BN leaders do? Should they go from house to house? Maybe, but even then the people can’t be stopped from asking the questions which are burning in their hearts. Leaders try to get themselves close to the people by attending weddings and funerals, but the PBS President, Tan Sri Pairin, himself is feeling the heat while doing this kind of rounds in Tambunan. A few weeks ago while walking into a wedding in Kg. Sunsuron at night, some guests at the back shouted, “Ini kalilah!” And there were red faces all around!

Some PBS divisional leaders in Tambunan are now supporting STAR, going to Dr. Jeffrey’s house for chit-chats. When Pairin asked them if they still support him, they said, “Tan Sri, we still love you but we don’t like BN anymore!” So how?

If the BN leaders really want the people to support them, they can do a few things: 1. Declare and RCI and get it done before the next general election, 2. Delay the GE13 to next year (go full term), 3. Have a sweeping operation to clean the state of illegals, 4. Bring those people responsible for treasonous acts to justice, 5. Increase the oil royalty to at least 20% NOW, 6. Abolish the cabotage policy TOMORROW, 7. Have an RCI on the Double Six Tragedy (late is better than ever), 8. Stop all religious discrimination, 9. Stop the Malay dominance in the civil service, etc. etc.

But these will never be done as long as the BN is in power. What the BN leaders want to do is to continue lying to the people, to accuse those telling the truth of being liars, and at the same to try and make the people believe they are the angels and that the opposition leaders are devils. But you can’t lie to the people forever. They are mature enough to differentiate between truth and lies, and surely the day of reckoning will come.

DANIEL JOHN JAMBUN
Sabah STAR Chairman and Advisor to the UK-Based Human Rights Foundation Malaysia