Why SAPP must form the next government of Sabah, Part II

North Borneo (former name of Sabah) became an independent country in August 31st 1963.  That independence was short live because the British together with Malaya had conspired to form a federation call Malaysia.  This federation comprised of Sabah, Sarawak, Singapore, Brunei and Malaya.  History soon tells us that Brunei refuse to participate and Singapore ultimately separated from this Malaysian union.  Today, this federation is between the three nations of Sabah, Sarawak and Malaya.

The purported goal of this federation was economic prosperity and security.  However, we all know today that the goal had been hijacked by a greedy Malaya.  Soon after the formation of the federation, the Malaya government was hijacked by the ultra Malays who were motivated by race and religion.  They started to have this grand vision of Malay supremacy and Islamization of the whole Malaysian federation.

Thus starts the malicious engagement of indoctrination, interference in the internal politics of Sabah and Sarawak, and later to be followed with divide and rule strategy and Project IC especially on Sabah because it was deemed to be a weaker nation filled with uneducated non-Muslims.  The invasion soon led to incidental progression of colonization.

Quietly, Sabah was referred to as a State; aptly the 12th state in addition to the existing 11 states within Malaya.  Today, our state government are effectively run by Malayans.  Because of the UMNO government at the helm, all final decisions are made in Malaya.  This is how Sabah has surreptitiously become a colony of Malaya; through its assumptions of state.  Without realizing what had hit us, we were invaded overnight; a brilliant non violent coup de etat by Mahathir upon the constitution of Sabah.

Malaya, however, treated us like cattle for the slaughter.  To them we are an ignorant bunch who deserved nothing better than poverty.  In 2010, the World Bank made a startling finding that a majority of Sabahans live in poverty.

Federal statistical department depicted Sabah at the very bottom of the list among all the states making us the poorest state compared to all the other states in Malaya.  After 20 years of UMNO rule, we have now become the pariah of the nation, to be ridiculed and called their fix deposit.  Naturally, the people of Sabah are not happy.  Only a moron would be happy with these circumstances.

UMNO made a mockery of Sabahans especially the Momogun people.  Momoguns were systematically marginalized.  Although, Momoguns equate to 70% of Sabah's population, only a third of Momoguns are employed in governmental entities.  In fact, there were reported cases where non-Momoguns who in recent years had just gotten their citizenship got priority status when it comes to governmental staffing.

When it comes to enforcement agencies such as Police, Immigration and Maritime security, less than 10% of Momoguns were ever employed.  Why is there a high level of discrepancy in staffing vastly to the disadvantage of Momoguns?

Why is the 1st article in the “Twenty Points Memorandum” states that there will be no state religion in Sabah?  This is because the founding fathers of our nation knew that religion begets religious bias.  No matter what religion, it is never an institution that promotes unconditional fairness.  It is with this realization that the 1st article within the “Twenty Points” declaration deals with religion.  This is the most important point, but today this most significant point in the memorandum had been purposely ignored.

Such disregard of the safeguard laid out by our founding fathers had been unwise resulting to much disparity among the citizens of this country.  Those who do not share the same religion with a part of the populace felt marginalized.  Non-Muslim felt like they are living in a third world foreign country.  Momoguns have become a stranger in their own land.  We felt suffocated and suppressed.  This is not what our fore-fathers have envisioned for our nation.  Today, one of the question in people's mind is how can we fix this problem?

Since the time of Harris Salleh's BERJAYA's government, the instrument of government was being used to force people to convert to the government sanctioned religion.  Harris himself was adamant on Islamizing the Momoguns.  It is because of this that Harris Salleh's BERJAYA government fell like a rock.  Harris could not believe that he had lost to a virtual unknown Momogun like Joseph Pairin Kitingan.  He had disregarded the 1st article stated in the “Twenty Points Memorandum,” and the “Batu Sumpah” sworn in Keningau.  This is the reason for Harris Salleh's downfall.

Illegal immigration has dogged our nation from very early on.  However, it was only when Mahathir came to power that we have seen unprecedented disregard for our constitution.  Mahathir see himself as above the law.  He views the Momoguns of Sabah as an illiterate bunch of 17th century farmers.  At one time telling Jeffrey Kitingan “not to tell the people what they don't need to know.”

For Mahathir (and most Malayans at that), Momoguns are backward homo-sapiens living in the jungle.  He was bent on ignoring their plea.  He wanted to take total control of Sabah.  Thus starts the process of colonization.  To defeat the established Sabah administration he engineered Project IC and use a strategy known as “Divide and Rule” to keep the power of government firmly in hands of Malaya.

Since UMNO came to town, other Malayan parties also took the opportunity to come along, just so they can get a slice of the pie.  Today, Malayan parties such PKR, PAS, DAP, MCA, KITA, GERAKAN are much on the ground in Sabah prostituting for supporters and votes.

Now we have a dominant Malayan institution dominating the political scene in Sabah.  We Sabahans have effectively been invaded by all these Malayan political parties.  They have made themselves at home and now they are ignoring the fact that we are the host in our house.  They are now demanding that we follow their dictates.  They view us with such insignificant disdain.  They demand that we succumb to their wishes or be destroyed.  These are the party party Malaya that we have come to know.  With this option on our plate, what can we do?

These Malayan political parties managed to get many Sabahans to support their agenda.  We are now faced with Sabahans who selflessly defend the rights of these Malayan parties.  Somehow these Malayan parties managed to indoctrinate many Sabahans to fight for their cause.

The largest bulk of these quakes are ignorantly supporting the doctrinaire of PKR and DAP.  A fallacy they equate to fairness and equality.  In the case of PKR, they believe that PKR will be the strongest contender against UMNO.  To them, supporting PKR will mean the end of UMNO.  But such sentiments had not bear an inch of proof that PKR in Sabah will be able to defeat UMNO in Sabah.  Likewise DAP is trying to con the Sabahans with their brand of politics.  DAP, much like the other Malayans political parties is just full of hot air and never a true defender of our Sabahan rights.

However, the larger question is why do we need to rely on a Malayan party such as PKR and DAP to stand for us?  Are Sabahans inferior to Malayan when it comes to political parties?  Are we going to insist to continue this enslavement mentality?  Have we forgotten that we are a nation with a constitution?  Have we forgotten that we have our autonomy as our legal tender guaranteed under our constitution?

In June 6, 1976, a plane (Nomad aircraft 9M-ATZ) carrying the Sabah government cabinet ministers headed by Donald Stephen crashed upon its returned to Kota Kinabalu from Labuan.  Until today, the original findings were never released to the public.

It was just “53 days after Berjaya had won the state election and bombs had been going off in the state;” Malaya pressured the state government to agree to a 5% royalty fee for our oil.

Tengku Razaleigh had clearly said that he was on-board the same flight when Harris Salleh pull him off the plane in the final minutes before take off.  What was most baffling was the fact that it merely took less than a week after the wreckage for Harris Salleh to sign the agreement with Petronas.

The dead bodies had not yet been buried but our government of the day had already sold our soul for a mere token in return.  Where is the justice to our founding leaders?  Where is the respect and honour for Donald Stephens and his cabinet ministers?  Where is the report of the crash?  From what is known, Australia and Malaya knew the answer to that, but they had purposely kept Sabahans in the dark.

We Sabahans are a pitiful bunch; living all this while in the dictates and remote control of a federated partner.  A government who claims to bring good tidings to a lost nation, but in reality they are a devil in disguised.

The Malayan UMNO government of the day is the most corrupt government this history could ever experience.  According to an international monetary watch dog based in America, Malaysia is one of the most corrupt places on earth.

There had been over 200 billion unknown monetary outflow leaving Malaysia in recent years.  In Sabah alone, almost all government departments are well known to practice some form of bribery.  Corruption is an epidemic that flow top down making corruption a silent form of cultural norm.  This is another ills that foster the death of a society as the “rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer.”  Is this the country that we have been dreaming about?

Today we are faced with many political parties vying for our votes.  There is so many its hard to decide, perhaps, but in fact it is not difficult to choose among the many.  If you have read all the facts written in part I and part II of this article, you can only come up with one true choice.

The decision is easy if you listen to your heart.  We Sabahans need Sabahans support.  We are the true defenders of Sabah.  We are the souls of the multi-ethnic races of Sabah.  We are the talents that will fight for our future well-being.  We are you!  We are Sabah's new hope!  Give us the chance to prove ourselves and to the world!

Just as we had many good Sabahan leaders in the past that had a vision of grandeur for this young nation, we again have such home grown leaders today that are ready to take the helm of government with a vision to modernize our country to meet the standards and norm of the 21st century.

It was unfortunate that Donald Stephens and his colleague did not have a chance to realize their vision due to their untimely death, but the spirit and vision that they had will continue to live in the hearts and minds of the progressive Sabahans.

It is with this spirit that our local Sabahan political party lays claim that vision of a modern, prosperous and glorious nation.  Sabahans deserved such a country.  We deserved the honour to dictate the direction of our destiny.

There are plenty of talents in Sabah and we ought to give that talent a run for its money.  We ought to give our people a chance to prove themselves.  We the people must give our children a chance to show us the pride and dignity as a people of the land below the wind. We should never succumb to the inferiority jitters as what our Malayan counterparts hope to see us falter.  We must claim our integrity while there is still hope.  Let Sabahans form their own government!

Give unto the Malayans what belong to them, but what belongs to Sabahans must be given to Sabahans.  Sabahans deserved some respect!  We deserved the right to prove our integrity.

As a people and as a nation, we must learn to unite.  Seek the truth and let the truth shine.  Give credit where credit is due.  Speak with honour and integrity.  This is our country.  Let no one take that away from us.

It is with this creed that we must raise to the occasion.  Our history demands of our wisdom to render a just verdict.  We must now make the hero’s call for the pride and dignity that is within our hearts.  After all, we Sabahans are a family.  Family must stick together to fight for its honour.  Make this coming general election a simple one.  Vote local!  Vote SAPP!  Just say NO to party party Malaya.  May God be with us!

By Wilfred Gaban
He is a Director at PIPPA – Progressive Institute of Public Policy Analysis; President of Kadu Foundation – An NGO dedicated to the health and wellbeing of the Momogun people of Sabah.

See .... Part I & Part III