Usno Baru registered since Aug last year, only announced today

KOTA KINABALU - President of Usno Baru (New), Dulli Tiaseh, announced that it was registered by the Registrar of Societies (RoS) on Aug. 28 last year - 21 years after the "old" Usno was de-registered in 1993.

Dulli, said he received a letter from Federal ROS confirming his party's existence and registration.

However, he did not elaborate on why it was announced almost a year later.

"Hence, with this announcement, we hope the people will no longer speculate about Usno's registration (with RoS)," he said.

The registration number of Usno (New) with the RoS, he said, is 0042-13-SBH.

Dulli said the main duty of the party's Supreme Council members is to recruit as many new members as possible from all districts in Sabah.

"This includes those who were loyal to Usno from then until now," he said, adding that the Usno Baru head office is located at Kepayan II in Putatan along the road leading to where Mustapha was buried.

According to him, there are three main objectives of the party.

They are: - To protect and ensure equality, stability, prosperity and well-being in Malaysia;

- To defend and conserve and protect all rights and interests of the State of Sabah and its people under Malaysia; and

- To uphold and protect the customs and cultural traditions of the people of Sabah and to respect the practice in freedom of religion

The line-up for the term 2014-2017 are Dulli (President), Capt (rtd) Awang Damit Damit Mohamad (Deputy President), Serin @ Hasrin Awang (Secretary General), Rang Rainah Abd Ghani (Treasurer General), Muhammad Said (Asst Sec-Gen) while the Supreme Council members are Mohd Salleh Mohd Lin, Ismail Mohd Said, Abd Sani Marif, Mohd Abdillah Timbasal, Jaidah Pilang @ Matusin, Ramdan @ Mandy Gudan, Manshur OKK Mohd Yassin and Tahir Mushin.

The appointed Supreme Council members are Perais Sharif Baba, Rodziah Perinsil, Irian Nanang and Ahmad Awang.

The party was founded by late former third Chief Minister Tun Datu Mustapha Harun and came to power after winning the 1967 State elections.

It remained in power until 1975 under Mustapha's leadership and until 1976 under Tun Mohammad Said Keruak's leadership.

Prior to the formation of Malaysia on September 16, 1963, Usno played a major role in cooperating with United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko), led by Tun Fuad Stephens, and the Federation of Malaya, in attaining independence from Great Britain through the formation of Malaysia.

However, Mustapha disbanded the party just after the 1990 general election to make way for Umno's official entry into Sabah.