Rise above partisan politics to solve problems, says Dr Jeff in New Year message

KOTA KINABALU - “Leaders should rise above individual and party political interests when tackling problems faced by the State in the common interest of Sabah or the general population” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief, in his 2015 New Year message released today.

"Problems faced by Sabah such as security and the so-called Project IC can never be resolved if partisan political interest become the primary guiding principle of such solution” he said.

Leaders should become statesmen not self-serving, Dr. Jeffrey suggested.   Unfortunately, the majority of politicians are just ordinary “politicians” whose primary goal is to get elected and to get into positions in government to enjoy the political perks as Ministers, contracts and government allocations.

Politicians are then gagged or penalized by their political parties from giving personal opinions or ideas especially when their comments differ from their official stand.

“This practice has stifled democracy, initiatives and prevented the development of political leaders into “statesmen”.   In turn, it has stifled due and proper progress development of Sabah and the nation” he added.

This stifling can be seen from the overall status of Sabah where poverty and lack of proper basic amenities and lack of proper roads are the order of the day compared to neighbouring oil-producing Brunei and the tiny Republic of Singapore without oil but with oil refineries.   At the national level, Malaysia is left far behind Taiwan and South Korea who were lagging behind Malaysia in the 1970s.

The New Year 2015 should be regarded as a new opportunity for leaders to become statesmen and to transform Malaysian and Sabah politics into a new political era and leaders as statesmen.

To get into this level of political maturity, politicians and leaders of government must first free themselves and their minds from the evil of the politics of race and religion.   Universal justice should be practised and everyone should be treated as a member of the human race.

Racists, racial extremism and religious bigotry should have no place in peaceful and harmonious multi-racial and multi-religious Malaysia more so in Sabah which epitomises 1-Malaysia.

The federal government should stop treating Sabah and Sarawak as vassal states and as colonies of Malaya.   Federal leaders should cease to cheat the Borneo States by changing the concept of the Federation of Malaysia from a new nation formed through a merger of Sabah, Sarawak (and Singapore) in 1963 to one that is simply a takeover by Malaya acquired through a change of name of the “Federation” formed in 1957.

Sabah and Sarawak should not be the 12th/13th States of Malaya masquerading as Malaysia.

Malaysia must be “re-formed” if we want to keep the “merger” marriage happy and successful.   If not, Malaysia will revert to being the “Persekutuan Tanah Melayu”.