Just wondering what would those suprise be, another rhetorics?
1. “We believe some of the motions are for the sake of publicity only. They insisted because it’s a political ploy by them.” Adenan said one of the motions was on calling him (Adenan) the ‘Prime Minister of Sarawak’ and changing the name of DUN to Parliament.
2. “Asfia said Pujut assemblyman Fong Pau Teck submitted three motions – the first asking for referendum for Sarawak, the second aimed to change the name of DUN to Parliament and the Chief Minister of Sarawak to Prime Minister of Sarawak, and the third to oppose the amendment of the Sedition Act and to repeal the Colonial Sedition Act.
*Come on YB Fong Pau Teck, I believe Pujut voters didnt votes for you to talk about those STUPID and ABSURD RHETORICS. Anyway, just enjoy it while you still can. Dont be a stooges for Lina Soo and co.
I know you’re being partyless for quite sometimes now after being expelled from DAP but you shouldnt mislead Sarawakians with those Rhetorics. What Referendum? Lets votes BN out first and only then we can talk about Referendum or whatever it is. Sigh!
I believe what YB Fong Pau Teck trying to suggest is to elevate Sarawak Council Negri to Parliament similar to Scotland Parliament. Something which totally IRRELEVANT as there is a lots more bread and butter issues which he should talk about. We all know this is just for the sake of public stunt and i agree with Adenan Satem, this is just STUPID.
3. The sixth motion on Hudud, Asfia said, would come from Ba’Kelalan assemblyman Baru Bian. The motion, which he said would be “very long”, seeks that there should be no implementation of Hudud law in Sarawak.
They still attacking Anwar even when he’s now in Prison! Modus operandi is to demolish Anwar’s credibility for the second time and to nail him down but nobody would believe it. Not when you’re being presented with the same story over and over again since 1998
You can hate Anwar for everything from the failed September 16th coup to Kajang Move the movie and many more but the fact remain, this is all trumped charges with political motives, this is grave injustice!
As the real Fighter, he stay on and Fight on till the end, even he had to spend another 5 years behind the bars but yet still able to smile to his supporters.
True to his own words, “ALLAH IS MY WITNESS, I WILL NOT BE SILENT, I WILL NEVER SURRENDER!” and LAWAN TETAP LAWAN!
Lately, its seems like many Sarawakians has fall into CM Adenan’s PR stunt and by now, he must have been revered as the great CM and true blue “Anak Sarawak”
A stark contrast with Taib. Adenan has spoke about almost everything that is dear to the hearts of all Sarawakians such as the issue of Oil Royalty, Malaysian Agreement 1963, Ummo, Unity, Illegal loggings, Integrity pledge to name a few and maybe i missed out some but without any significant changes in Policies, his government is just a continuity of Taib’s legacy.
For a start, he should scrap the plan to built 52 damn dams including 12 mega dams in Sarawak and to have reforms in Land policy.
Its nothing more than just a PR stunt prior to the next state election in which, he need to have a clear mandates from Sarawakians and he need to distance himself from Taib’s shadow.
Btw, its an open secret he is one of Taib’s advisor and a strategist. Be smart and please read between the line folks. Goodnite!
More and more peaceful street protest/demonstration needed here in Sarawak.
Teringat semula kata2 seorang sahabat dari Semenanjung tiga tahun lepas, “Orang Sarawak perlu di budayakan dengan budaya Tunjuk Perasaan/Demonstrasi Jalanan untuk menuntut hak rakyat Sarawak”
Thanks God, a successful demonstration today in Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri to protest agaisnt 30, 000 Bangladeshi recruited to work in Palm Oil plantations all over Sarawak.
In the future, a statewide protest should be organised to demand for a change in Land Code (To recognise Pulau Galau/Pemakai Menoa) as part of NCR land, Land Policy, to demand for 20% Oil Royalty, to demand for full compliance of Malaysian Agreement 1963, to demand for scrapping of all 52 damn dams, to demand for “Anak Sarawak” to filled up the federal agency jobs and many others. God bless Sarawak!
Good morning. Semua status update di FB ngan Tweets di Twitter aritok ngerepak pasal GST. Relaks, bak kata orang, its a blessing in disguise
Maybe after this you guys would be more critical or concern on how the Najib spend our taxpayers money
Maybe after this you guys would finally interested to read “Laporan Ketua Audit Negara” every year
Maybe after this you guys would finally interested on how Rosmah Mansor do his shopping all arround the world with private jet bought/rent/paid by taxpayers money
Its a blessing in disguise and hopefully more and more Malaysians would finally open up their eyes on how the Government spend every single cents of taxpayers money.
We dont need GST if the Government can save a lots of wastages due to corruption and to cut unnessary spendings
The only reason for new Taxation being introduce is to generate MORE incomes for the government but its useless if they keep on spending the money the way it is now.
GST is their only and last resort since subsidies for fuel has been implented.
So sapa madah GST tek sikkan nait kan harga barang? Sapa madah GST tek bait untuk Rakyat?
Tok sik kira kau Pro Kerajaan (BN) ka, Pro Pembangkang (PR) ka, semua tetap kenak.
Salam April’s Fool, Salam 1 GST untuk semua. Semua kenak game ngan Najib aritok. Padan muka kita semua. Haha!
Minister in charge of Islamic Affairs (In Secular State?) Daud had reminded all parties not to be too emotional on the issue of a 13 years old Dayak school girl from SMK Lutong being converted by by his 2 teachers who happen to be from Malaya.
Im just wondering what would be his reaction if it was the case of a Muslim being converted to Christian?
The school teacher explained that the girl herself interested in Islam and had requested to be converted ane even choose her own Muslim name.
Even if is true which to be fair, i truly believe its true, the teachers should aware the facts that minor below 18 years old cant change his religion without his/her parents consent. That is the law.
Even if they cant or dont understand the Laws, by right they have moral obligation at least to inform, or try to get the consent from her parents though i believe they wouldnt get it
Another issue, by right they should know this is a very sensitive matter
Even if the girl wanted to convert to Islam, if i were they, i would just ask the girl herself to go to the nearest Jabatan Agama Islam and i dont need to involved in this matter.
It seems like the 2 teachers failed to be sensitive or failed to respect the multireligious, multiracial harmony in Sarawak!
Adenan should walk the talk. Now is the time for him to show if he’s really CM for all Sarawakians regardless of Race and Religion since he himself has declare publicly that he’s CM for all
The 2 teachers must be transfered/deported back to Malaya.
Adenan can do this by pressuring State Education Department which fall under Federal list
Or he can use our Autonomous Power over Immigration. This, he need not to consult State Education Department
This is to send a strong message to the so called “Troublemaker” (In Adenan own words) as this is not the first time we heard about Dayaks converted to Islam by tricks
The 2nd option, Adenan can exercise his absolute power over Immigration
According to Malaysian Insider, the 2 teachers were given desk job at Education Office
According to the Star, they were suspended
Which one is true? Suspended from teaching in SMK Lutong and given desk job at Education Office in Miri?
This is misleading. Why should they given a desk job? They should be suspended or given unpaid leave and then deported back to Malaya!
Taib oh Taib, what is the point of Sarawak having a current average per capita of RM39K but in actual fact, 80-90% of the wealth belongs to only 2-4% of the population which is your cronies and famly members? Shame on you!
Average per capita is just a another way to impress or fool people. Just take out those top 20 earners from the statistic and you will see a more realistic and actual economic condition. Shame on you!
Poor Sarawak! Despite its immense natural resources, it is going to take some time before it can join the ranks of Malaysia’s richest states. Shame on you!
You have been Chief Monster of Sarawak for the past 30 years and maybe 30 years more if you become a Zombie but 60 percent of Sarawakians still live in poverty? Shame on you!
33% of rural Sarawak has no electricity compared to 0.5% in Peninsular Malaysia and 41% has no clean water supply? Shame on you!
But yet, you shamelessly in the most arrogant manner said that Sarawak can be developed into a high-income state by 2015 and probably do not have to wait for 2020. Sarawak is already at the doorstep of (being) a developed state? Shame on you!
How is it possible that after nearly five decades of Malaysia and over four decades of the New Economic Policy (NEP), thousands of Sarawak’s poor continue to rely on rain and river water for their water supply? Shame on you!
How come significant groups of marginalised communities remain mired in crushing poverty, lacking access to the most basic of amenities even as your talks of fabulous incomes far beyond the wildest dreams of poor Sarawakians? Shame on you!
Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu Anak Numpang was quoted during DUN sitting in 2011 saying that there were 55,975 poor households in Sarawak.
Their incomes, he said, were less than RM830 per month per household. He said 27, 902 (49%) households were considered to be hardcore poor, earning less than RM520 per month.
The Ibans comprised 13, 349 (47.8%), Malays 5,601 (20%), Orang Ulu 2,925 (10.5%), Bidayuh 2,757 (9.8%), Melanau 1,974 (7%) and Chinese 674 (2.4%).
We should view these figures with grave concern. The majority of the hardcore poor are the natives of Sarawak. Have a heart for these people. Shame on you!
What you had done to eradicate poverty in Sarawak? Shame on you!
After 49 years of BN rule, and 31 years under your rule Sarawak is the 4th poorest state in Malaysia? Shame on you Taib!
How long more will Sarawak’s poor have to wait before receiving clean and secure water supply? 2015? 2020? 2030? 2050? Shame on you!
How difficult is it to solve Sarawak’s water supply woes given the state’s huge annual budget? Why are communities not given secure access to clean piped water when there is no shortage of funds to build hugely expensive mega-dams like Bakun, Murum and Baram along with 50 more planned for the near-future? Shame on you!
What benefit is the poverty-eradicating NEP to the poor if the Sarawak BN cannot even get its act together to supply clean piped water to all poor communities in the state? What benefit is the poverty-eradicating NEP to the poor if both the federal and state governments cannot overcome poverty in Sarawak? Shame on you!
Overall economic growth and standards of living may have risen in Sarawak since the NEP was launched in 1970. Poverty rates, including hardcore poverty levels, reportedly have fallen. But the curse of poverty remains since Sarawak’s development has benefited its population very unequally. Shame on you!
Yet, despite progress, Economic Planning Unit (EPU) figures in 2011 put Sarawak among the bottom five states with the highest poverty and hardcore poverty rates in the country, along with Sabah, Perlis, Kedah and Kelantan. Shame on you!
EPU figures for 2011 note that in 2009, the poverty rates of the other four states were as follows:
Sabah (19.2 per cent)
Perlis (6.0 per cent)
Kedah (5.3 per cent)
Kelantan (4.8 per cent)
Hardcore poverty figures for the same states were:
Sabah (4.7 per cent)
Perlis (0.8 per cent)
Kedah (0.8 per cent)
Kelantan (1.0 per cent)
This would also explain why in 2006, resource-rich Sarawak was officially ranked a mere 11 out of 14 in the country’s overall development composite index.
In 2009, after nearly 40 years of the NEP, the EPU reported that 10.1 per cent of the total number of all households earning less RM2300/month in Malaysia (the bottom 40 per cent distribution of poor households by income class in the country) were in Sarawak! Shame on you!
From these figures, we can surmise that about 242,400 poor households in Sarawak were earning less than RM2300/month in 2009; most of whom only earned an average of RM1400/month
EPU figures for 2010 indicate that the bottom 40 per cent of all households in Malaysia had a total household income level of less than RM2300 per month.
There were a total of 2.4 million households in this category. The mean monthly income of the bottom 40 per cent households in 2009 was RM1440.
But ironically, Chief Monster Abdul Taib Mahmud and his extended family are valued in the billions (yes, billions!) of US dollars, owning real estate, properties and over 400 companies all over the world.
Deputy CM Alfred Jabu and family are millionaires a few times over. So too former DCM George Chan. As are senior state ministers like James Masing, William Mawan, Adenan Satem, Awang Tengah, Abang Johari, Michael Manyin and Wong Soon Koh. Mind you, many of them come from very humble backgrounds before making it big in political life!
Today’s confirmation by the Office of the Attorney General in Switzerland that it has opened acriminal prosecution against the banking group UBS, over suspected money-laundering on behalf of Musa Aman, looks set to cause an awkward diplomatic upset for the UK.
After all, the royal couple Wills and Kate are right now packing their bags to give Musa a friendly visit!
Sarawak Report first exposed back in May the evidence that the Sabah Chief Minister has taken tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks for issuing licences to chop down what remains of Sabah’s rain forests.
And we have laid out damning details of the money laundering operation conducted by the Musa and his associates through UBS accounts in a number of articles.
Details of bank statements and of the official investigations by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission and also the Hong Kong authorities into the affair were made public in our series of exposes and the evidence was sent to Switzerland, where the Bruno Manser Fund requested the prosecution against UBS.
Yet, despite this mounting evidence, UK officials have refused to heed warnings against the planned visit to the state by the British heir to the throne and his new wife.
The visit is due to take place between September 11-19th, as part of a Royal Tour of the Commonwealth in celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, marking her 60th year on the throne. They will also be visiting Singapore and the Solomon Islands.
Photo-opportunity?
Great publicity – but could it now all backfire?
To begin with the choice of Sabah might have seemed perfect publicity for the environment conscious Royal Family. After all the trip is being promoted as an “exotic visit to the Borneo Jungle”.
Just in the past few hours the British presshas printed exciting details of plans to feature the Prince and his wife looking daring in lush forest canopies and cuddling up to cute baby orang-utans.
Given Musa’s energetic ‘greenwash’ PR of recent months, the objective has been to praise Musa for ‘slowing’ Sabah’s rate of deforestation, according to UK officials. They are accepting claims that he now wants to protect what is left of the jungle.
However, for months Sarawak Report has been warning the Royal Palace and the British Foreign Office against becoming associated with Musa Aman’s new campaign to present Sabah as an eco-friendly state, when in fact the Danum Valley Reserve which they will be visiting is a small oasis in one of the world’s worst environmental disaster zones and the Chief Minister is still selling concessions for kickbacks throughout the state.
Sarawak Report has also warned that proof of Musa Aman’s timber corruption is now in the public domain, showing how the destruction of Sabah’s jungle since the early 1990s has largely been driven by his own greed, first as the Head of Yayasan Sabah (The Sabah Foundation which is the trustee of its national forests) and then as the Chief Minister.
There is evidence that over US$90million dollars have been money-laundered through accounts associated with Aman and his key conspirators, a family friend Michael Chia and the Sabah lawyer Richard Christopher Barnes.
For these reasons Sarawak Report has repeatedly pleaded against the Royal Couple being encouraged to endorse a man whose criminality has ruined the jungle that they say they want to see protected!
This is a photo-opportunity that could go badly wrong.
Why endorse a suspected criminal?
Musa and his forest Chief Sam Manan altered the contour maps to allow logging of these once protected steep mountain areas of the state
Despite warnings from Sarawak Report just last week that Switzerland was about to launch its criminal prosecution over Musa’s money, the British High Commission is allowing this visit to proceed!
This opens the Royal Couple to charges of complete hypocrisy. They will of course be staying in pure luxury in the jungle resort in Danum Valley (a project sponsored by the world’s largest palm oil company, Malaysia’s government-controlled Sime Darby, while all around them millions of hectares of oil palm plantations are still being rolled out by their corrupted hosts.
The questionable judgement of such a visit is made even more severe by its timing, just as Malaysia approaches a crucial election.
What business has Britain to give such an endorsement to a notoriously corrupted and autocratic government, which has remained in power for longer than almost any other in the world?
After 50 years, who can still argue that BN has not cheated or bribed its way to its various ‘election successes’? Furthermore, evidence shows that more money is being stolen from the public in Malaysia and secreted out to foreign bank accounts, like Musa’s, than in practically any other country in the world.
Yet, it seems the royal advisors on this tour are preferring to present a lie rather than cancel the trip or upset their corrupted host, the Chief Minister of Sabah. They would rather the Royal Couple shake the hand through which a hundred million dollars of timber corruption money has passed than take a stand against the forces of corruption that are destroying Borneo!
Eco-friendly? Musa has just signed over 1/3 of Sabah’s forest reserve to ‘mosaic plantations’. He is selling off the licences in return for kickbacks
Most of that money has been stolen from the poor people of the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, whose natural resources have been filched by their politicians, while they have been left in the deepest poverty.
At a time when Malaysia is at last waking up to these shocking truths and when the opposition parties are defying persecution and abuses against them to present for the first time some kind of real challenge to BN’s forces of oppression, is it right for Britain to prop them up with such a high profile visit by its as yet untainted young royal couple?
The cries in Malaysia and even in Musa’s own BN party in Sabah are now becoming deafening for his removal and his position is more precarious than ever.
How he will thank William and Kate, for stretching out their hands and offering him just the lifeline he needed with this visit and their silly praises for his greenwash PR about the ‘eco-friendly’ policies of Sabah.
(BERN, SWITZERLAND). Switzerland’s Attorney General has opened a criminal case against UBS, the Swiss banking group, over suspected money-laundering of timber corruption proceeds from the Malaysian state of Sabah in Borneo. This has been confirmed today by the Office of the Attorney General in the Swiss capital, Bern.
The case against UBS was opened on 29th August 2012, following a criminal complaint by the Bruno Manser Fund over the bank’s close ties with Musa Aman, Chief Minister of the Malaysian state of Sabah. Musa Aman and his nominees have been accused of laundering over 90 million US dollars of corruption proceeds from the tropical timber business in Sabah, Borneo, through a number of UBS bank accounts in Hong Kong. Musa Aman also has a personal bank account with UBS in Zurich. According to the Bruno Manser Fund, UBS has failed to properly app
ly due diligence, as is required by law when dealing with Politically Exposed Persons (PEP). Musa Aman is not only head of the Sabah state government but also the brother of the Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anifah Aman.The case is based on Switzerland’s tough anti-money-laundering legislation, which makes it a criminal offence for Swiss companies to be involved in laundering the proceeds of corruption and other crime in their worldwide activities.The Swiss case is hitting the Malaysian government at a critical moment, just two weeks before the announced visit of the British royal couple, Prince William and Kate Middleton. The Duke and Duchess are planning to visit Sabah on 15th September 2012 in order to see the “largest remaining rainforest” at Danum Valley. Sabah’s head of government, Musa Aman, has personally benefited from the large-scale logging of the nearby tropical rainforests, one of the world’s most biodiverse habitats.
Do you guys know that there is NO Oil Refineries in Kelantan Sabah, Sarawak?
Do you guys know that there is one Oil Refinery (Shell) in Lutong, Miri but has to be close due to loses and thus making it impractical to still be put in operation 10 years ago?
Do you guys know that Malaysia’s first oil well was discovered by Shell on Canada Hill in Miri, Sarawak in 1910. Shell’s Miri No. 1 was spudded on 10 August that year, and began producing 83 barrels per day in December?
Do you guys know that we only have LNG Plant in Bintulu while the government has plan to built RM62 Billion Oil Refinery Plant in Johore, yes in Johore, how ironic is that?
Do you guys know that Terenganu has their Oil Refinery Plant
Do you guys know that oil and gas contractors from Sabah, Sarawak only allocated of 30% of various jobs and contracts (Downstream) by Petronas?
Do you guys know that Sarawak and Sabah produced petroleum earlier than Terengganu and Kelantan. History of Petroleum in Miri dated back to the early 1900’s?
Sabah and Sarawak are the big oil and gas producing states and yet we do not benefit as what we rightfully deserved?
This is not fair for Sabah,Sarawak especially when there are no development projects allocated by Petronas in Sabah,Sarawak. Our oil and gas has been siphoned away and exported
We should be looking at some positive development programs to help the Sabah, Sarawak economy and not by simply shipping out our valuable crude oil to a foreign refinery first, then we buy back the refined petrol at a high price. Don’t wait until our crude oil and natural petroleum gas to run dry, then only consider to set up the related oil and gas industry.
Anwar Ibrahim says Pakatan Rakyat will give 20% royalty to Sarawak Sabah while Dr. Jeffrey says it should be 50%. It is not up to Federal government to tell us how much they would like to give us of our own money earned through our own resource. It is up to Sarawak and Sabah to suggest how much to give the Federal Government!
For example, why can’t we get a good 4 lane trunk road for Sarawak? Air travel is not cheap in Sarawak. In Malaya such road is a norm. And as I said, do not come and tell me that Sarawak is sparsely populated and therefor difficult to develop because we have income from oil and gas if it is allocated fairly to meet Sarawak need.
What constitute the 5% royalty repatriation? Is it from revenue generated from our petroleum? Then who among us are sitting within Petronas management to oversee this? This is just like the sawit JV with big Malayan companies. They farm our land, yet not one of us sits as director or managers within those companies?
Not only we’re lacking in terms of infrastructures but Sabah, Sarawak is one of the poorest state in Malaysia? Dont talk about income per capita as the big gap betwen the rich and poor and if im not mistaken, Kelantan is among the poorest state too.
How ironic is that? We are RICH but yet we are POOR so my question is, who BENEFITS from all this?
Who own the biggest oil companies in Malaysia? Scomi- is Abdullah Bidawi’s son and Kencana is Tun Mahathir’s son. I am sure Najib is already creating another for his son after he changed the CEO of Petronas. It becomes apparent that Sarawak Sabah oil and gas is made the ‘fixed deposit” of Prime Ministers income through their children.
But Sarawak Government are totally silence on this issue. The BN Government continue to try and build good relationship with Federal Govt based on losses of income to Sarawak. What is the point? We hear of our state government begging for money to develop Sarawak when it should be rightfully in our hand, isn’t that comical?
Last but not least, the other shocking revelation that has come to my knowledge is that 80% of the oil produced by Petronas is not sold directly to the world market but is channelled through 6 OPTION HOLDERS who obtain the supply from Petronas at well below market prices (1974 prices to be exact). These option holders or agents are the ones reaping the benefits and huge profits in the oil price hikes.
Ps : Should i rant more everyday to wake and whack you guys up? SIGH!
Kalau Bukan Kita, Siapa Lagi? Kalau Bukan Sekarang, Bila Lagi? Ini Kali Lah!!
I have to admit, Dr Jeffrey G Kitingan is indeed a Maverick Politician and everyone has failed to understand his present move
Knowing that STAR Sabah is no way either in Heaven or Hell has the capabilities to fight agaisnt the Gigantic BN Machinery or the Mighty PR Warlords be it in the State or Parliament, he choose to play safe but yet a genius move when he choose to be in a position to leverage both PR and BN in the event of Hung Parliament (When neither BN or PR has an absolute majority of seats in the Parliament to form the Federal Government)
Sabah/Sarawak both plays a roles as King Maker for both BN and PR. Both need us to form the next Federal Government and we need to have this King – making role in order to pursue our rights
This tactical manevouring hatched by Dr Jeffrey is to ensure more bargaining power for the States agaisnt the Federal Government. What happen now was the Centralisation of Power to Federal while the State remain subservient to Federal.
Sabah has did this in 1980s through PBS Government but they fall from grace by dirty/undemocratic tactics by the all powerful Federal/Central government.
This is to protect / fights for the interests of Sabah, Sarawak vis a vis the 1963 Malaysia Agreement, 20/18 Points of Agreement, the Inter Governmental Committee Report and the Cobbold Commission report
What UBF (United Borneo Front), UBA (United Borneo Alliance), STAR Sabah trying to do is reviving Sabah Alliance which was the predecessor to BN Sabah.
Back in the 1963 – 1973, there was Alliance ( Malaya) lead by Tunku Abdul Rahman from UMNO, Sarawak Alliance lead by Stephen Kalong Ningkan from SNAP and Sabah Alliance lead by Tun Fuad Stephens from UPKO functioning as Equal Partner and when Barisan Nasional was form in 1973, both 3 Alliance being incorporated into 1, Barisan Nasional under the chairmanship of Tun Abdul Razak, the then 2nd Prime Minister of Malaysia
Barisan Nasional was formed in 1973 as the natural evolution from Perikatan (UMNO, MCA and MIC), but expanding to include PPP, PAS and Gerakan who until that point were opposition but joined the broader Barisan Nasional after the May 13th 1969 events in the name of national interest with local parties in Sabah, Sarawak
It was also the beginning of the end of the earlier consulative/collective style of the earlier Perikatan style of governing. UMNO took a more dominant role more in keeping of the number of seats they held
From then on UMNO (with Tun Razak at the helm) moved to play a more dominant in the coalition. with seats having to be doled out so that the BN parties would not be competing with each other thus the beginning of another concept of Malayan Colonisation of Sabah, Sarawak in the name of Power Sharing.
Barisan Nasional is a legally registered party which all the other parties belong too. There is no vote in BN as far as I know. The president and deputy president of UMNO automatically become the Chairman and deputy chairman of BN
United Borneo Front – Kingmaker or Bust?
I must commend Jeffrey Kitingan for coming up with this grand idea/plan to finally thwart the ruling Umno. If everything falls into place, it will work. Yes, I’m saying Umno, because BN=Umno and Umno=BN .
Let us not pretend otherwise as all the other 14 component parties are just mere appendages of Umno. This brilliant idea can only of course work if Jeffrey’s war cry of ‘Unity is Duty’ is heeded by both Sabahans and Sarawakians alike.
In order to achieve this lofty goal many factors will have to be over come by Jeffrey’s group or party. In addition, many more factors must work in Jeffrey’s favour for the aspiration to come to fruitation.
With so many political parties and individuals trying their luck in this political jackpot, it suffice that as many ‘problems’ will arise.
The easier part will be to win substantial number of seats to render Umno-BN unable to form the government by itself.
The harder part will be to keep the coalition together. If the opposition were successful, will it be 2008 all over again or in Sabah’s case , 1994 rewind?
Umno has all the money (rakyat’s to be sure) to buy any politician. What can this loose amalgamation of people/political parties with different concept of ‘winning’ do to ensure that this ‘pakatan’ does not fall apart?
Your guess is as good as mine. What about making everyone in the opposition seeking to topple Umno/ BN come up with a written pledge to the rakyat that they will not be bought over by Umno if they win? It might get a couple more votes.
Meanwhile , best of luck Sabahans and Sarawakians!
Please read below article written by Raja Petra Kamarudin on 13th February 2011. I believe this should be a WAKE UP CALL for us Sabahans, Sarawakians :
PETALING JAYA: For a long time now, since 1963, Sabah and Sarawak have held the ‘key’ to Putrajaya. He who ‘holds’ Sabah and Sarawak, therefore, possesses this key.
This is mainly because Peninsular or West Malaysia controls only 74% or 165 of the 222 Parliament seats. The balance 26% or 57 Parliament seats are in Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan.
And that was why Umno decided to go into Sabah in 1990 and aspire to also go into Sarawak if they could — but can’t as long as Chief Minister Taib Mahmud is still alive (which means they would probably do so once Taib is no longer around as Chief Minister).
The March 2008 general election proved this point very clearly. The 165 Parliament seats in Peninsular Malaysia were split almost 50:50 with 80 plus seats going to Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat each. It is because Barisan Nasional managed to win almost all the seats in East Malaysia that it got to form the federal government, yet again.
East Malaysia has always been treated as Barisan Nasional’s ‘fixed deposit’ or ticket to Putrajaya. Barisan Nasional does not deny this and, in fact, openly admitted that this is so. At least Barisan Nasional is honest about what ‘role’ Sabah and Sarawak are playing in the whole scheme of things — the role of ‘kingmaker’.
So what does that say about the importance of East Malaysia? By Barisan Nasional’s own admission, East Malaysia is the route to federal power. And East Malaysia is being treated as a means to ensure that Barisan Nasional gets to retain power.
This may not have been too apparent in the past. But the result of the March 2008 general election amplified this point and made it even clearer that no one gets to form the federal government, whether it is Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat, unless they first figure out how to win (or retain) power in Sabah and Sarawak.
Sabahans and Sarawakians have finally woken up to this fact — not that many did not know this earlier. And those who may not have realised this earlier now do. You do not get to form the federal government without the support of East Malaysia. That is the simple and extremely clear fact.
The question now would be are Sabahans and Sarawakians prepared to continue to allow East Malaysia to be used as a mere stepping-stone to Putrajaya? Are they prepared to continue to be tools of federal or Kuala Lumpur-based political parties in their quest for power? Or do they now want to become equal partners in a political alliance that rules Malaysia as equal partners?
For too long Sabah and Sarawak have been treated as mere colonies. No doubt Sabah and Sarawak got their independence from Britain and in the same breath became part of Malaysia back in 1963 — and with this they ceased to be colonies of England. But did Sabah and Sarawak really shed their colony status or did they merely exchange one colonial master for another? Did they, as I have written many times before, get rid of the white colonial masters and merely swapped them with brown colonial masters?
Swapping one master for another
One misconception that must be corrected is that Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore did not ‘join’ Malaysia. Malaysia did not exist before 1963 so what was there to join? What really happened was that Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore agreed to team up with the Federation of Malaya as equal partners to form Malaysia.
What this means, therefore, is that Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore were equal to Malaya, which at that time comprised of 11 states. Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore were not equal to Selangor, Perak, Penang, Johor, Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, Perlis, Pahang, etc. However, today, Sabah and Sarawak are being treated as just two more states in a Malaysia made up of 13 states.
And that was what Singapore could not accept, which resulted in Singapore eventually leaving Malaysia to become an independent republic. Singapore realised that it was not really getting independence after all. It was just swapping one colonial master for another. It was being downgraded from an equal partner to Malaya to just another of the 14 states of Malaysia, equal in status to one of the original 11 states of pre-Malaysia.
Sabah and Sarawak did not follow Singapore’s move of leaving Malaysia. That was because the leaders of Sabah and Sarawak, unlike the Singapore leaders, were compromised. And those who refused to be compromised were ousted or died mysterious deaths. Basically, the federal government had the Sabah and Sarawak leaders in its pocket. And these compromised leaders allowed the ‘backdoor’ re-colonisation of Sabah and Sarawak.
Sabah and Sarawak not only teamed up with Malaya to form Malaysia as equal partners but also on the basis of the 20-Point and 18-Point Agreements respectively. However, once the early leaders of Sabah and Sarawak were compromised, the 20-Point and 18-Point Agreements were pushed into the background and conveniently forgotten.
We need to look at these two Agreements again. And we need to not only look at them but also explore how the spirit of these Agreements can be restored. Whoever wants to form the next federal government must give Sabah and Sarawak a firm commitment that the 20-Point and 18-Point Agreements will be honoured.
Thus far there is no indication that both sides of the political divide place much importance in this matter.Fundamental to these agreements is to allow Sabahans and Sarawakian what I would call self-determination, for want of a better phase.
This may not tantamount to autonomy seeing that national defence, internal security, foreign policy, and so on, are federal policies and outside the jurisdiction of the states. Nevertheless, there are still many areas not within the ambit of the federal government, which are state matters, but which the states are not being allowed to manage or decide on their own.
Self-determination needed
The Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) is of the view that the entire relationship between the federal government and East Malaysia needs to be reviewed. Things are not happening the way it was intended when Malaysia was first created. There is no so-called partnership between Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak.
What we have instead is a federalisation policy where Sabah and Sarawak are just two of 13 states that come under the domination of the federal government.
To demonstrate that the national or Kuala Lumpur-based political parties are sincere and genuine about ‘de-federalisation’ (again, for want of a better phase) they must first end their policy of the domination of East Malaysian politics. They must allow Sabah- and Sarawak-based political parties to chart their own direction and determine their own future.
The 20-Point and 18-Point Agreements must be the basis of the relationship between Kuala Lumpur and East Malaysia.
MCLM would like to see the national or Kuala Lumpur-based parties releasing their stranglehold on East Malaysian politics. Let the Sabah- and Sarawak-based parties contest the state and general elections.
National or Kuala Lumpur-based parties should form alliances or have electoral pacts with these Sabah- and Sarawak-based parties and assist them in whatever way required. National or Kuala Lumpur-based parties should not instead contest seats in Sabah and Sarawak and engage East Malaysia in three- or more-corner fights.
There may still be three- or more-corner fights in Sabah and Sarawak. In any election this can’t be avoided and is perfectly legal and constitutional. But let it not be the national or Kuala Lumpur-based parties that trigger these multi-corner fights.
Let it be known that the national or Kuala Lumpur-based parties will ensure that they will not be the culprits in multi-corner fights but would instead help the Sabah- and Sarawak-based parties in their attempt to deny Barisan Nasional the states.
MCLM supports the idea of a United Borneo Front comprising of Sabah- and Sarawak-based political parties. MCLM also supports the move to restore the letter and the spirit of the 20-Point and 18-Point Agreements.
MCLM will work towards ensuring that Sabah and Sarawak are allowed self determination so that they can chart their own direction and determine their own future with the help of the other opposition parties in Pakatan Rakyat.
KUCHING: Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s turnaround on the oil royalty issue after 31 years in power and the fact that he preferred “private” and “amicable discussions” with the federal government have raised more questions.
Uppermost on the list is whether Taib and his predecessor and uncle, Abdul Rahman Yakub, had knowingly “surrendered” Sarawak’s rights over oil and gas to the federal government.
Sarawakians who have read Taib’s biography – “A Soul You Can See” – written by Douglas Bullis and who remember their history, would recall that Taib was the federal-level Primary Industries Minister who was in charge of the nation’s oil and gas resources.
This being the case, was Taib responsible for the lopsided oil agreement and the Petroleum Development Act passed in Parliament in 1974?
The Act was passed following a confrontation between Opec (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and oil companies over oil price policies in 1973.
Expounding on the 1973 “crisis”, Taib was quoted by Bullis as saying: “By 1973 I realised Malaysia and the oil companies were headed for a confrontation over their purchase price policies.
“There was too much take and too little give, and Malaysia’s people have an ethic based on balance,” Taib had said in page 88 of the book.
“Eventually I came up with the idea that we should base Malaysia’s oil concession policy on shared production agreements.
“Naturally I was snubbed by oil companies who claimed the Malaysian government was moving towards nationalisation.”
Taib’s silence
Bullis said that it was obvious that Malaysia’s post-1974 policy on taking control of Malaysia’s petroleum interests from oil companies was largely Taib’s works.
It is well known in Sabah that its then chief minister Mustapha Harun and his successor Fuad (Donald) Stephens refused to sign the oil agreement giving 5% of oil royalty to Sabah, but Sarawak under Abdul Rahman was said to be “too willing” and signed the agreement.
But the question is: Did the nephew and the uncle “surrender” Sarawak’s rights over oil and gas to the federal government in order to please the then prime minister Abdul Razak in return for political and financial support?
Sarawak was at that time in turmoil following the sacking of its chief minister Stephen Kalong Ningkan in 1966.
At the time there were incessant allegations by the Parti Pesaka anak Sarawak president Temenggong Jugah anak Barieng that the Ibans were shabbily treated by Abdul Rahman and Taib.
Abdul Rahman was also facing an “internal rebellion” against his leadership from within Pesaka, which had by then (in 1973) merged with Parti Bumiputera to form Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB).
At the point of signing the oil agreement, Sarawak was said to be politically unstable and needed the support of the federal government.
Could history be the reason why Taib has been silent on the royalty issue during his 31-year tenure as chief minister? And why he has been compliant to Umno in the peninsula, having pumped millions into its coffers?
What off-the-table deal did Taib and Abdul Rahman eventually strike with the federal leadership that allowed them to sustain Sarawak’s “independence” as opposed to Sabah’s “colonialisation” by Kuala Lumpur?
What has now compelled Taib to call for re-negotiations on the oil royalty issue?
It certainly cannot be fear of losing his grip in Sarawak because he has already won the state election held in April last year.
If it is the parliamentary election, Sarawak BN coalition is unlikely to lose more than 10 of the 31 parliamentary seats. And that too the losses will come from Chinese-based Sarawak United People’s Party, Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party and Parti Rakyat Sarawak. Less likely will it be from Taib’s own PBB.
So what then is compelling Taib to go to the “private” negotiation table? What cards will he pull and how will he keep “wanting” Umno away from Sarawak?
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