For more than three and a half decades, the people of Sabah have always been aware of the huge number of foreigners arriving here and given fast-track citizenships to become voters.
We now hear directly from the horses’ mouth in the Royal Commission of Inquiry, confirming the clandestine modus operandi employed by Umno and carried out by the Election Commission and National Registration Department in rigging every Sabah election to sabotage the Sabahans’ choice of governments.
Unless the Barisan Nasional federal government now swiftly abolish the death penalty like it did the Internal Security Act, all the conspirators from both sides of the political divide might be sent to the gallows for high treason when their immunity from prosecution is revoked and removed once a change of government takes place.
Why even from the opposition side? How were they involved? For those who do not already know, apart from the dead and retired, 90% of the remaining perpetrators are now playing active roles in PKR and they are all at the top levels.
It is a fact known to all politicians from the peninsula that all along Malaya needs resource-rich Sabah and Sarawak to stay afloat instead of vice versa and one way to ensure that the money keeps pouring in is to deny and prevent the legitimate people of Sabah, at all costs and by all immoral and illegal means, from electing a state government that will turn off the hydrant.
But one question kept popping up among the people here even from the villages these days: is this union called Malaysia still tenable at all by international democratic standards propagated by the United Nations?
Many people in Malaya, including also senior constitutional lawyers and history professors, are pathetically confused that Malaysia is Malaya while Sabah and Sarawak are merely states like the 11 states in the peninsula.
What they never try to find out was: does Malaysia really have sovereignty without Sabah and Sarawak in the equation?
Is this what has become of citizens who were hoodwinked from young with a distorted version of events riddled with major historical inaccuracies and an endless series of purely fictional scenes played by non-existent characters and peddled by a government which is totally bankrupt of morals?
Is the Malaysia Agreement signed in 1963 actually legal? Does Britain have sovereignty over the whole of Sabah when giving independence? Is the Malaysian government still paying annual rentals to the heirs of the Sulu sultanate until today? If the Malaysia Agreement is illegal, doesn’t that mean that Sabah is technically still a British colony then?
Scotland with all its oil wealth in the North Sea will decide in a referendum by its people in 2014 whether to leave the United Kingdom; South Sudan with all its petroleum wells is now an independent nation as from 2011; likewise, if it is no longer in Sabah’s interest to remain in an unreformed union, should the legitimate people of Sabah be given the opportunity to decide in a referendum conducted by the United Nations if they would still be in favour of staying on or leave Malaysia?
Or, will Sabah secede and declare independence like Kosovo from Yugoslavia in 2008 which the International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled in 2010 that the unilateral declaration of independence by the democratically and legitimately elected government of Kosovo does not violate any international laws?
But then again, isn’t it better and more fun to remain and make the federal government beg for financial survival?
Can Sabahans trust Anwar?
Sabah people resent the interference of Kuala Lumpur in their lives and their disillusionment with the BN federal government is now at an all-time high.
It is time for the people to have their say to settle this Malaysian quagmire in Sabah politics; this is the time Sabah voters must decide whether to claw back the sovereignty of Sabah from Malaya.
Voters in Sabah must use this chance to choose whether they want to be ruled by Malaya or to determine their own affairs while opting to stay in Malaysia.
This time, the situation is more serious than the political battles of 1976 and 1985 when Usno and Berjaya were kicked out respectively.
Do the people of Sabah still remember the long list of developments promised by Anwar Ibrahim to be carried out within 100 days after hijacking the mandate of the people in 1994? What came out of it? Will we still trust a Pakatan Rakyat led by this same man?
It is time to end decades of grinding uncertainty which has harmed the economic growth of Sabah.
Sabahans must send a historic ultimatum to Malaya to get out of Sabah affairs by showing all their parties the exit door. The bullying must be stopped. We must roll out the red carpet for a grand send-off for all the Malaya-based parties.
Until Sabah is finally free from all forms of interference by any party from Malaya, everyone is a slave.
The present BN government does not embrace reforms and the current chief minister does not have an effective and intelligent Cabinet. BN politicians are most dangerous, most obnoxious, and the least intelligent.
Will the election manifesto of local opposition parties insist that powers be returned to the state as her interests are best served in a complete autonomy and promise the people to be flexible and adaptable in order to re-invent the economy of Sabah?
As millions of Malaysians in Sabah are saddled with debts, will there be major changes to difficult questions confronting Sabah? Will our local opposition politicians make us more competitive? Will they be fair and democratically accountable? Our economy is now very brittle and recovery must not take longer than six months; we badly need a new chief minister who is capable of change and ensure that citizens have jobs, small businesses will not struggle with low turnovers, and families not squeezed by high inflation.
Najib embarrassed
It was reported that in the second quarter of 2012, government debt was expected to be around RM503 billion or about 54% of GDP; we are indeed standing on the thin rope of bankruptcy.
As usual, a major international embarrassment happened last week to our prime minister.
Our beleaguered and embattled Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak went overseas to Gaza in a bid to divert attention away from all his failures at home exactly like what former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad did when he was pushed to a tight corner; only this time, it backfired right into his face when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced Najib’s visit as interfering in their domestic affairs.
Many Malaysians, particularly 99% of the Malays, do not understand the Palestine conflict. The issue in Palestine was never about religion between Judaism and Islam; it was always about the occupation of land and flooding the occupied territories with Jews from all over the world.
The facts are that many Jewish Israelis do not agree with their government’s actions and supported the Palestinians in their struggle; and that many leaders and victims in Palestine are in fact Christians – Hanan Daoud Khalil Ashrawi is one fine example, among others.
Every year when he was still alive, Yasser Arafat accompanied his Christian wife Suva into church to celebrate Christmas mass and one particular year he took to the pulpit and told the congregation in front of international media that Jesus Christ was born a Palestinian and He (Jesus) also would have fought the Israeli occupation.
Did our Malay leaders tell the citizens, particularly the Muslims, about this? Instead, they make it look like as if it was a Jewish conspiracy against Islam.
Are the Muslim people of Palestine closer in brotherhood to the Muslims of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Iraq, and Syria who fought and brought down their tyrannical governments or are they closer to the Muslims of Malaysia who support a despotic government corrupted to the core?
A government that relied on suppressing the people and keeping them segregated and unequal in religion and race as a tactic to hold on to power? A country where citizens were denied the attainment of equal individual and collective rights which should also include the right to separate identities and cultural institutions after five miserable decades of so-called independence?
Is it any surprise that integration and living in harmony was never in Umno-BN’s vocabulary?
Doesn’t the Umno-led BN government look more like the cruel regimes of Hosni Mubarak, Muammar Gaddafi, Ben Ali, Saddam Hussein, and Bashar al-Assad?
The question now is no longer whether all these are being done to dupe the Malay Muslim voters, but whether the Malay Muslims are still gullible enough to be fooled?
Sabah’s situation is no different from Palestine; we are also fighting occupation by Malaya politicians who are flooding us with foreigners by giving them citizenships.
Like Palestine, all the Christians and Muslims in Sabah must kick them out.
Khalifah al-Barat mengutuk Emir al-Nusantara
Jejak al-Gaza menyinggung Ummah
Al-Munafig menyamar sebagai Mukmin
Abu Jahil menjaja Hikmah
Fitnah menjadi Lumrah Langkasuka
Ulama buta Fatwa sesat
Baitulmal dirompak Rakyat dikejami
Sang Pendusta berlagak Imam Mahdi
Intifada Palestin seruan kepada Sabah
Undi Pembangkang menggantikan batu
Merejam Syaitan di PRU 2013 – Ameen.
The writer is a former member of Sabah’s faded tourism industry; loves food and speed; and blogs at http://legalandprudent.blogspot.com giving no quarters.
Mr Weil,
ReplyDeleteYou are always enlightening in your comments. Thank you.
From a comment in Borneo Herald by Anonymous on February 2, 2013
ReplyDeleteANALYSIS RE-OPENS MALAYSIA FORMATION DEBATE
WHY? The article sets out clearly most of the issues about Malaysia confronting the Borneo people in Sabah and Sarawak today. It asks the right questions and demand the right solutions.
What it does is to once again open up the question on the legitimacy of Malaysia and the “formation debate” that embroiled the region in the 1960s. It asked “What does it mean for Sabah and Sarawak to be in Malaysia?
What is said applies fully to Sarawak. However Sarawak suffers from the plight of having muted and nuted (neutered) “leaders” who know only how to kowtow to parti parti Malaya and are led by the nose to promote the Malayan domination agenda of making Sabah and Sarawak colonial resource centres and keeping its people as “kuli kuli”.
The identical issues, problems and sufferings of the Sabah and Sarawak today were not all there before 1963. They came after 1963 with the British Malayan “Malaysia” package which was sold as the “security and prosperity” medicine for good of the people! They were created by UMNO Malaya's apartheid policies as part of the colonisation of these 2 countries.
The article opens up the whole question of how Malaysia came into being. And there are a few narratives as to how.
One very important part of the history has tended to be seriously overlooked unless mentioned in passing but never in its proper context. This is the fact that there was not just international but importantly local opposition to the British Malayan plan to consolidated British colonial interests under one colonial administration. The majority of "historians" avoid talking about what an unpopular idea "Malaysia" was and how it was opposed by many in the Borneo colonies.
Conceived in 1942, it was firstly a plan to consolidate British colonial interests in the region. It evolved into the 'Malaysia federation proposals” as Britain faced local demands for independence and UN pressure to de-colonise in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Britain and Malaya conspired and jointly announced their “Malaysia plan” without prior consultation and agreement of the people in the Borneo colonies. In their hurry they totally bypassed essential steps of firstly allowing the colonies independence and time to develop and form their stand on this sudden federation proposal. Britain was criminally negligent in this and deliberately not conducting a UN supervised independence referendum on the question of “forming Malaysia”.
The Malaysia proposal was generally opposed by those who saw its as neo-colonial plan to re-colonise the 3 countries originally intended to be part of Malaysia. This opposition led to the armed independence uprising in Brunei in 1962 and continued in the guerrilla independence war in Sarawak till 1990. All this is an important part and parcel of our struggle for independence which tends to be overlooked and sadly neglected.
The important point is that the people had opposed "Malaysia" and demanded their own national independence. They were ignored and suppressed by the British and in the end they had to use armed resistance to gain independence.
Anonymous February 2, 2013
ReplyDelete(Cont'd from above)
BORNEO PEOPLE TOOK UP ARMS TO OPPOSE MALAYSIA FOR NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE
In Sabah it is recorded only the Suluks and Bajaus supported this federation idea. This is much to their deep regrets for they were rewarded by becoming some of the most marginalised sections of Sabah population.
In Brunei, the Brunei People's Party (BPP) with mass backing opposed Malaysia as a neo-colonial idea. The BPP won 99% of the electable seats in the Legislative Assembly elections in the first and last general elections to be held in Brunei in August 1962 - for the last 50 years. This is what the BPP demanded from Britain:
On Dec. 5, 1962, these three proposals were submitted to the Legislative Council:
i) Reject the idea of joining Malaysia
ii) Restore Brunei sovereignty over Sarawak and Sabah
(This demand reflected the fact that Sabah and Sarawak were previously part of Brunei territory).
iii) British grant of independence to the Borneo federation by 1963.
(The Borneo Federation called “North Kalimantan” was a concept proposed by the BPP and accepted by many people and politicians in Sabah and Sarawak).
The proposals were rejected by the British (the Assembly was stacked with a majority of appointed members) and on the morning of Dec. 8, 1962, the PRB staged it armed uprising for independence.
In Sarawak the Sarawak United People's Party sharing similar independence ideas with the BPP led to opposition to Malaysia which saw some of the biggest public demonstrations in Sarawak in the 1960s for real national independence. Sarawak under Brooke Rule experienced 100 years as an independent state from 1841 to 1941. Sarawak become a colony from 1941 in turn of Japan Britain and Malaya.
Regardless of their ideologies, the independence freedom fighters were nationalists who opposed the planned re-colonisation and domination of the Borneo colonies under the “Malaysia Plan”.
What the Borneo nationalists warned in the 1960s about re-colonisation has been proven correct over 50 years. We do not need another 50 years to prove them wrong!
DEMAND AN INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM!
TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY!
FIGHT FOR A FREE AND INDEPENDENT SABAH & SARAWAK!
(Sarawakians)
Sekiranya penduduk tersilap langkah memilih kerajaan akibatnya ditanggung oleh rakyat sendiri.
ReplyDelete“Justeru itu kita mesti pertahankan kerajaan yang ada sekarang ini. Sekiranya kita silap kita akan kehilangan sesuatu yang bernilai yang telah kita nikmati selama ini,” katanya.
ReplyDeleteIn Sabahans' hands.
ReplyDeleteThe lucrative tourism industry continues to be one of Sabah’s major income earners as Sabah increased its target arrivals by 1.1 per cent totaling 2.875 million visitors compared to 2011.
ReplyDeleteThis was an estimated RM5.178 billion revenue earned, the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment reported yesterday.
ReplyDeleteThe industry has proven to be resilient, rising from turbulent times and gaining strength from adversity from the beginning of 2012 with challenges faced especially on flight uncertainty
ReplyDeleteInternational arrivals recorded an overall positive growth of 11.3 per cent with double digit growth from China and Hong Kong (44.3%) and South Korea (26.1%).
ReplyDeleteEuropean arrivals especially from the United Kingdom and Ireland (growth of 39.9%) were also making a comeback to Sabah, indicating confidence in long-haul travelling and strong focus on nature-based tourism, Sabah’s stronghold in the industry.
ReplyDeleteDomestic tourism remained as the main contributor making 67% of the total arrivals or 1.933 million to Sabah in 2012.
ReplyDeleteEfforts to promote Malaysia at the World Economic Forum (WEF) here are in full swing through banners, magazine advertisements, as well as a dedicated website at the ski resort to the 3,000 global delegates attending the prestigious gathering.
ReplyDeletehe onslaught of media information is aimed at informing leaders, corporate citizens and even the foreign media of Malaysia’s immense opportunities in investment and business as it moves towards becoming a high-income economy.
ReplyDeleteOne initiative which is eye-catching is a five-storey high advertisement on the walls of the Sport Hotel and Congres Hotel, both located near the Congress building Zentrum, the venue for the WEF.
ReplyDeleteMalaysia’s leading ad is entitled “Endless Possibilities” with the website address www.malaysia.my prominently displayed on it.
ReplyDeleteBesides this, there are ads on Malaysia on the front and back page of the renowned “The Economist” business magazine which is being distributed to the WEF delegates, a move seen as making the global business and political elite aware of Malaysia’s many investment advantages.
ReplyDeleteAn article on the achievements of the economic transformation program (ETP) undergoing in Malaysia and the government transformation program (GTP) is also displayed in the center of the magazine.
ReplyDeletePrime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is attending the forum at the invitation of WEF Chairman, Professor Klaus Schwab, will during his participation leave no stone unturned to “market” Malaysia to the world.
ReplyDeleteThis is vital to lure foreign investments into Malaysia amid the global economic uncertainty which is crucial to sustain the economy, continue the economic advancement agenda, as well as generate much-needed employment opportunities especially for the country’s young populace.
ReplyDeleteNajib, who is also Finance Minister, would impress upon decision-makers that Malaysia undoubtedly offers immense investment opportunities and business potential through the 12 National Key Economic Areas.
ReplyDelete