Below is the text of a press statement issued by Dr Jeffrey Kitingan today.
I want to place on record here that I am in total agreement with the sentiments expressed by my friend.
I would only add this.
It is not only Sabah that is colonised by UMNO.
The people of Sarawak and Malaya, too, have suffered the same fate.
And we will only be rid of this curse that UMNO and BN have become when the people of Sabah, Sarawak and Malaya unite.
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Politicians and political parties from Peninsula should learn to respect the people of Sabah if they are sincere in helping them and the State instead of referring to them merely as political “fixed deposit” and as voters that can help them retain or conquer Putrajaya.
Sabahans are now more politically matured.
They now realise that they have been fooled and cheated for the last 48 years resulting in Sabah being the poorest State in Malaysia and being completely powerless politically.
UMNO/BN is naturally happy to be in complete control of Sabah. But do you think that Sabahans are happy?
Do you think that we are happy being the poorest State, knowing that we have abundant natural resources and 95% of our oil resources are taken from us unfairly?
Do you think that we are happily being swamped by illegal immigrants who are being given Mykads and allowed to vote and soon will takeover our rights?
Do you think we are happy that we are only receiving 5% of our oil resources?
Do you think that we are happy that RM35 billion of our revenues go to Kuala Lumpur annually while the State collect a meagre RM3.6 billion in revenue!
Do you think that we are happy being ruled and colonised by UMNO?
Now we also have Pakatan Rakyat asking for our votes and asking Sabahans to ignore smaller parties and directly helping in their hidden agenda against Sabahans.
Do you think Sabahans are fools to want one colonial master to be replaced by another?
Sabahans need no reminder to be fooled a second time that only Peninsular parties can best represent Sabah and protect Sabahans.
Sabahans and Sarawakians need to keep their Parliamentary seats. If not, not only will the Borneo States lose their voice, they will lose their bargaining power to protect the State rights.
From the 2008 election results, it is important to realize that Sabah and Sarawak could be the kingmaker. If the Sabah and Sarawak local parties had switched their allegiance, there would have been a change in the Federal Government.
Contrary to opinions from some local leaders of Peninsular opposition parties and Peninsular opposition leaders, a kingmaker need not be a big party nor be based in Peninsular.
A glaring example is the role of the Liberal Democrats in the 2010 UK elections where it won just 57 seats in the 650-seat British Parliament and played the role of kingmaker in a coalition government. The Liberal Democrats leader even got to be appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister.
The Peninsular parties need Sabah’s seats and the support of Sabahans. The support must be at our terms and conditions and not theirs and not based on their agenda.
The Peninsular parties can promise us anything but at the end of the day, it will depend on the strength of the local parties to defend our State rights.
Look at the local BN components who are mere followers and are forced to remain deaf, dumb and mute to the rights of Sabah and Sabahans. They should look to and emulate the bargaining prowess of the Liberal Democrats in UK.
It is time for Sabahans to stand united and to realize that we must take responsibility for ourselves.
We can no longer rely on outsiders to lead us as they have their own agenda. Their agenda and priorities are not the same as ours.
They are only interested in using us, Sabahans, for their Semenanjung political battle.
Let us decide our own fate. Do not let others decide for us.
If not us, Who else? If not now, When?
INI KALI LAH! Do not underestimate local parties.
JERALL
January 18, 2012
STAR IS BRIGHT AND SHINNING TO SHINE SABAH TO A BETER FUTURE.
Paul Warren
January 18, 2012
So there you have a coalition of East Malaysian political parties after GE 13 holding the enviable position of kingmakers. Your successful candidates are all over the place celebrating. Then walks in the bagman with an obscene amount of money.
Or maybe all the successful candidates are honorable men and women who will comply with their leaders. As kingmakers they talk to both sides. UMNO’s BN and Anwar’s PR. Guess who will give them a better deal? UMNO with all their corrupting ways? Or PR with its puritanical posturing?
Sure this East Malaysian coalition may get for their constituents a better deal. But it could be a deal with the devil himself.
Sure, the Peninsula based parties might seem alien to the East Malaysians. But what I see is an attempt to put someone in a position to make a deal. There is nothing suggesting that they’d be anathema to making any kind of deal with UMNO.
So whatever happens to ABU?
Ranen Bhattacharyya
January 19, 2012
Presumptuous politicos such as UMNO’s Muhyiddin Yassin(DPM) and PKR’s Chua Jui Meng are desperado’s. They need to be in Putrajaya, them both, dang it won’t happen without Sarawak’s & Sabah’s voters acquiescing to that on the ballot paper.
You are absolutely right Dr. J, these states – nay Nations – must not roll over and give in. Fight to regain what’s lost and give the people a better and brighter future.
Middle path
January 19, 2012
Dr. Jeffery, dont fool yourself as well.
If thats what you want, you could have do it 10 years ago.
Anyway, do it with no bad intention in your mind, to unite the people and with the parties in west malaysia. Im sure you will get over it in the next ge.
najib manaukau
January 19, 2012
The parasites in deceitful and corrupted Umno are very well aware that the only way the East Malaysians will keep them in Putrajaya is to keep them as ignorant as ever.
Therefore the standard of education implemented there are way below par and the leaders there are filthy rich. That is why there is nothing the P.M. can do even though he is mindful of what is going on. So there are only two ways out of all these, one is to opt out of Malaysia like Brunei did. See what has happened to them ? And their wealth is still with them and not in the foreign bank accounts of the Umno parasites alternatively vote them out of the political dominance they have since becoming part of Malaysia. Why do you think they have legislation to make it an offense to talk about leaving Malaysia ?
Sabahans Arise!
January 19, 2012
We Sabahans(Kadansan,Dayak,Murut,Ulu, Laut, etc) have been disunited for so long thanks to umno helped by a few traitors richly rewarded.Our children are always jobless or get pittance salary for labourious jobs.Our grandchildren will become worse off if we dont stop the rot NOW! Arise my sabahan brothers and sisters, save our state for our own future, NOT for those peninsular money-makers whether pakatan or BN. Sabah for Sabahans!!
Marc Wan
January 19, 2012
U r right ! Who knows better than you guys ?
Not ppl who FD’d you and do not give you the respect……indeed it’s time to stand up and get back your state !
A Malaysian anxious for one nation...
January 19, 2012
First, don’t judge everyone by BN’s standards and behaviour. Not everyone will enslave others as they have. Secondly, if you have geographical blocs instead of the racial blocs that BN have imposed on us, what is to stop other blocs from forming together? What is to stop BN or PR from being a kingmaker in their own right? Where would your Borneo Agenda go then? And what is this regional agenda that you speak of? First form the national agenda which is to say justice and fairness to all communities and regions. Then within that national agenda, there can exist a regional agenda which basically fine tunes the policies and practices to the needs specific to an area. Sabahans and Sarawakians are not separate from the Peninsular. Yes, they have been badly treated and abused by BN. And there must be recompense and remedy. Unite first with a national agenda that you can live within to rid ourselves of the blight on the land, whether Borneo or Peninsular, which is the BN. Or else as someone has said, while you bicker, the moneybags will come and splinter your regional bloc and subjugate you further. They are masters at divide and rule. Or are you so naive to think that the Borneo Agenda has given you a solid and indivisible political force? Join the wave of change. If it doesn’t work, throw them out and find someone else who will.
Dr. Amir
January 19, 2012
Dear Readers,
It is very interesting to note that one Sabahan has his brain triggered by new waves of change. Once a rich nation, where many UMNO leaders of the west, went there to ‘share’ the wealth but after complete depletion called it’ BN seat banks’. How low you may have be viewed by the UMNO goons of the west. However, can you change the other leaders mindset? The many UMNO leaders of Sabah had their pockets fill to the brim, and will they do otherwise?
If the mindset has been colonised, it is going to be extremely difficult to change it. Only a ‘Sabah Anwar Ibrahim” will be able to do it. Do you have one? None that can be seen to date, not even a trifle of it. Pairin turned down Anwar’s offer in 2008 tsunami for a change of Sabah political landscape but due to personal vendetta, the former declined. Has Sabahan the guts to make for a change this time around?
Everything is in your hand Sabahan, You will determine your future fate. The wealth and the power that UMNO Sabah’s leaders are having currently is not an easy meat for them to give away. To be united you need another ‘Tun Fuad Stephan’ or Anwar Ibrahim of Sabah’.
We wish you all the best, but with all the in-fighting amongst the Sabahans politician the reality of united sabahan is far from fetch.
啊jib哥
January 19, 2012
Dr M was holding a dinner party in Seri Perdana, among his last as premier, when suddenly his aide came up to him to tell him that Jeffery Kitingan was standing in the rain at the gates, demanding that he be let in.
Dr M turned then nonchalantly told his audience: “Jeffery Kitingan is at the door. Every party also he wants to join”.
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Moral of the story: Jeffery Kitingan has no credibility. Mr I-will-screen-Pakatan-candidates-with-my-lofty-high-standards has none either. Haris. Take your holier than thou attitude and shove it up your ass.
Brian Pirit
January 26, 2012
Jeffery has been consistant in his struggle. It started with his “Sabah for Sabahan” slogan years back which got him thrown into the slammer. Now he is back with a bigger agenda, the UBF and who says that he has no credibility. Has anyone of us been denied sunshine for 30months like he did and still resolute in our stuggle for fair treatment and equality as he still does? I love drinking beer and i hop from pup to pub,rain or shine but the beer always taste better in one pub. Moral of the story..no matter how many pubs i dropped in to have a beer, its the taste of beer that i crave for and more so in one particular pub, my pub!