Salleh's twisted lies are totally outrageous and shocking!

It was really appalling the way Datuk Salleh Said Keruak tried to explain our problems in Sabah when he gave the closing speech at the social media convention at UMS last Saturday (March 17). He simply said it is all our own faults. Meaning, even if there was no Federal Government, if there was no politics of federalism, we would still be in this mess, because we have faults. So, “Let’s blame ourselves,” he said.

After Datuk Seri Musa Aman accused the opposition of politicizing the illegal immigrants, now we get this total nonsense from Salleh. It looks like Umno Sabah is on a roll, with the leaders taking their turns attacking the opposition’s issues, to try to make the people believe it all has nothing to do with Umno or BN or the Federal Government. It’s all because of the stupidity of Sabahans themselves! So expect the next leader, Datuk Yahya Hussein maybe, to come up with another fairytale about why Sabah is sinking fast.

Maybe he will have a new idea and say it is all because of the opposition which is sabotaging everything the government is doing. Yeah, that will be really good explanation! Also, datuk, don’t forget to mention that the opposition leaders are causing Malaysia’s loss of face in the world, and that it is the opposition causing all the economic problems as well, like inflation, rising national debt, the depletion of the EPF, the losses in Felda, and the Scorpene scandal which is coming up for trial in France. And confirm also that if it hadn’t been because of the opposition there wouldn’t be any poverty or problems, or land grabs by big companies from the Peninsula in Sabah. Yeah, if there was no opposition everything would be well and everyone would be prosperous in Sabah.

Salleh gave assurance the BN government would do all it can to ensure everyone enjoys equal rights in the country. But isn’t that a little bit too late, Datuk? Inequality is already here and it is so bad that the KDMs feel they are second class citizens. We have racial and religious schisms caused by racial discrimination and favouritism started and perpetuated by BN and Umno leaders. We don’t have equal rights with the Peninsular. Yes inequality has been here a long, long time, so what’s the point of assuring us we will have equal rights?

The opposition parties are not promoting their own agenda, but promoting the agenda of the people, such as NCR. And Datuk, we are not complaining about our lands which some of our people had sold. We are complaining about our NCR lands which are being taken by the big companies with the help of our own so-called leaders.

But Salleh’s worst statement was when he said “why are there so many illegal immigrants? Where did they get their ICs? Well, it may be because a certain person here says this person is his long distant relative, or that leader might say those people are his brothers.” It is already bad that he has to deny the existence of the Project IC for which many people had been arrested under the ISA, but to say that foreigners get ICs because they had relatives in here is a totally stupid remark that must go down in history as the biggest political bullshit in the history of Sabah!

Is he saying that a foreigner coming here without any document is automatically given an IC because someone said he is related to him, or he is his brother? So there is no need for the immigration laws then? Just run the country like you manage a club. If someone vouches for you then you automatically become a member. How very convenient? Where on earth did Salleh get his education? Which idiot professor ever taught him that there is sanctity to national sovereignty, no meaning to cross-border legislations, and no point in national security?

Is Salleh telling us that in Sabah, foreigners will continue to easily become Malaysians just because someone claims to be their relatives in Likas? My dear Datuk, do you realize that this is the most outrageous statement ever uttered in a speech by any politician in a long time? For making this kind of very childish reasoning you have gone on record as a liar and pretender whose nonsensical excuses can be discerned by a primary school kid?

And then you made it even worse by saying the people here shouldn’t blame others because we made the decisions to allow illegals in, and that we were not forced by anyone to do so! How revolting! When did we ever bring the foreigners in? Wasn’t it the work of Umno leaders that we are now flooded with illegal immigrants? What a very clever way to turn the table on us, but the trick is not working. What you are trying to do is only making us realize how corrupted Umno Sabah is to the point of blaming the people for something they have never done and actually hate so much they want to scream and vomit!

You assured us BN will stand up to defend our rights but why not give us our rights by solving the problem with illegals? Why not give Sabahans the freedom to decide their own future, to retain more of its revenues, to have higher oil royalty. You are blaming our “forefathers” for the 5% oil royalty, but those who signed off our biggest revenue source are still alive. And also, the BN can change what such forefathers did just by admitting it was wrong, and then immediately correcting it. The Sabah Umno-led government can pass a new ordinance to nullify any law or any agreement and give what is rightly ours. But what you are telling us is, we made a mistake and we can’t do anything about it now. Are you saying the Umno-led state government is a powerless government?

And how ironic that you are advising bloggers to spread truth and facts and not “juicy news.” It is the truth and facts which we have been telling the people through the printed and online media. The revelations we have been making are juicy because they expose how corrupted and twisted the BN government is, how much we lost through decades of injustices, not because we made up the stories. We don’t lie. We tell the truth, and as you said, because we tell the truth that people follow us. It is the BN leaders like you who lie, deny the truth, and twist history for their own selfish purpose.

AWANG AHMAD SAH, Deputy Chairman, STAR Sabah