Sabah's Future Bleak With These Leaders

Kota Kinabalu:    “It is comical seeing Sabah Umno leaders falling over each other trying to justify Umno’s presence in Sabah without any concrete basis or replies to the reasons why Umno is being rejected when not a single Umno Malaya leader has done do.   If this is not to please their Umno leaders in Putrajaya, what else is?” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, Chairman of STAR Sabah responding to responses by Sabah Umno leaders on his earlier statement that Umno is not wanted by many in Sabah too.

It was also reported that several Sabah Umno leaders had met up with their Umno president cum Prime Minister in Putrajaya and apparently gave the thumbs-up that all is well for Umno in Sabah.

Hopefully, it will be good for Sabah and Umno’s ouster in the next elections if Umno Kuala Lumpur accepts what was said by the Sabah Umno leaders that Umno has no problems in Sabah and takes no action.

The statements of the Umno leaders were effectively negated by the national RTM’s live interview of the Chief Minister of Sarawak on Wednesday night who reiterated that Umno and its brand of divisive and disruptive race and religion politics was not welcomed in Sarawak.

The Sabah Umno leaders must have forgotten that Umno was imposed on the people of Sabah by the force of the federal powers using Usno and Usno leaders in the name of race and religion.  

This was re-inforced by the politics of race and religion and the indoctrination and domination of the minds of local muslims re-classified as malays and the malaynization of illegal immigrants given ICs, recruited as Umno members and given the right to vote and who are now the “fixed deposit” of Umno/BN in Sabah.

While building their vice-like grip on Sabah, Umno used the rotation of Chief Ministership to entice other leaders to support Umno.   And when Umno established their strongholds with their fixed deposit members/voters with the aid of other BN components, the rotation system was abolished leaving the CM post entrenched with Umno and its Chief Minister decided by Umno Malaya instead of by Sabahans.

Today, the Chief Minister can be announced by Putrajaya at any time as having resigned and the replacement CM sworn in before any session of the State Assembly can be held to endorse any replacement.  

With such a system, any Sabah Umno leader will be beholden to Umno Malaya and their leaders in Putrajaya and will be in no position to defend or fight for Sabah’s rights or the interests of Sabahans.

Just look at the pathetic state of development of lack of clean treated water, no electricity, no proper roads and other infrastructure.  Remember days ago, the incident of a makeshift cart pulled by a buffalo to send a sick person to hospital because there is no proper sealed road. 

Even schools are not spared with depilated conditions and recently schools without classroom walls and students studying under make-shift tents.   These are mere few examples one will see and understand the results of why Umno Sabah cannot look after the interests of Sabahans.

It took more than 20 years for Sabahans to realize what was happening and the trickery of Umno in Sabah.   The results of GE-13 is partly due to the federal BN government’s agenda to instil fear into the hearts of Sabahans to vote for BN.  The GE-13 results is no gauge for anything given the winds of change that have since blown over.   Moreover, GE-13 was not a referendum of Umno in Sabah.   If a referendum is held today, even many members of Umno Sabah and BN components will vote to reject Umno in Sabah.

If the federal government and Umno don’t feel threatened, why are the police authorities and Ministers threatening and harassing Sabah rights activists and nationalists with arrests, if it is just only a disgruntled few?

Instead of addressing the issues why many Sabahans are wanting Umno out of Sabah post-GE-13, their statements are merely diversionary from the problems facing Sabahans and that caused by the presence of Umno in Sabah.  

The attitude of some of these Sabah Umno leaders clearly show that they are under the behest and under the control and at the feet of Malayan leaders and cannot defend Sabah’s rights and interests.  This can be confirmed from the stand of Sarawak leaders who are not from Umno and not beholden to Umno Malaya.

If they have any interests of Sabah at heart, the first things they would do would be to ask for a review of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 to re-assess federal-state relations and the constitutional safeguards of Sabah in Malaysia.  They should also ask for a review of the revenue sharing, if not ownership, of Sabah’s oil and gas revenues and the solutions to the problems caused by illegal immigrants that have been given dubious ICs and MyKads and voting rights who are also Umno members.

These 3 issues are just the tip of the iceberg of the problems in Sabah with another long list trailing behind for Sabah leaders to face and resolve.

Given the attitude shown by some of these Sabah Umno leaders, the future of Sabah looks bleak. 

“Is it a wonder that many Sabahans no longer want Umno in Sabah too?