Sabah Umno betraying Sabahans’ interests – Star

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Umno is so overzealous with the promotion of the selfish interests of Umno and BN to the point that they are willing to sacrifice the interests of their fellow Sabahans.

“The don’t care what happens to us as long as Umno stays in power,” said Star state deputy chairman Awang Ahmad Sah in a statement here. “It is shocking to see them working very hard to deny and further erode the rights of Sabahans.”

Awang pointed to the recent cases of state legislative assembly speaker, Datuk Salleh Said, who said that the 20 Points agreement was no longer relevant and the statement by Kota Belud Member of Parliament, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan who said that Sabah was one of the 14 states since the beginning of Malaysia.

“Before this Salleh even defended the presence of the illegal immigrants here by saying it was the people’s fault for allowing them to get in,” he said. “This is an outrage and his anti-20 Points statement raised the ire of both the opposition and BN leaders.

“Salleh and Dahlan should be old enough and have enough wisdom to know the history behind the formation of Malaysian Federation. Salleh as the son of a leader who was there at the founding of Malaysia seems to be trying to change history and denying the spirit of Sabah’s nationhood which his father upheld.

“But thank God, the historical knowledge and the firmness of the opposition leaders, especially Star and SAPP leaders, quickly silenced Salleh and Abdul Rahman who actually lost the media debate. Truth prevailed, but I wonder what other new twisted ideas the Umno leaders will come up with before the general election.”

Awang said Sabahans must by now be made to realize the stark possibility of bona fide Sabahans losing their state to the foreigners due to our failure to understand our own rights. “Our past leaders were hoodwinked into accepting all sorts of legislations that surrendered our rights to Malaya, but now Umno leaders in Sabah are working openly to take away whatever little rights we have got left,” he added.

Awang feels strongly that the Muslims in Sabah who aren't Malays are trying to be more Malays than the real Malays from the Peninsula, and most Sabahans Muslims who are in Umno are now behaving as if they will be the last bastion for Umno members in Malaysia and are obviously defending Umno more than the Peninsula Malays themselves.

“But they need to realize that the Malays in Selangor, Kedah, Kelantan, Perak in Penang had rejected Umno in 2008 election and there is no sign that UMNO would regain the Malays support which they lost in that election,” he said. “There is also a strong indication that more Malays in Negeri Sembilan, Terengganu, Johor and Melaka will reject Umno in GE13. Even Tun Daim Zainuddin said only three states are safe for BN in the next general election.

“Ironically, Sabah Umno members who are not Malays, including KDMs, are supporting Umno as if Umno is their god,” he said. “Why are Salleh and Rahman so willing to distort history? Are they against what their fathers believed? Or maybe there are trying very hard to ingratiate themselves to Umno, to Musa and Najib, to climb up the political ladders?

“It was such a relief that a few months ago, Lahad Datu assemblyman Datuk Nasrun Mansor proposed that only Sabah natives should become legislatures, all because Nasrun had enough conscience to worry about foreigners with ICs have outnumbered the locals in some areas and are beginning to demand political representation.

“Most Sabahans don’t even realize that we have already lost five territories. We have lost Labuan to the federal territory, we have lost Tawau, Lahad Datu, Sandakan and Kinabatangan to the foreigners whose population has exceeded the locals. What assurance can UMNO give the Sabahans that the foreigners won’t be able to contest in elections in the near future?

“If we allow Umno/BN to win in the next election, we will lose more territories to the foreigners, such as DUN Karambunai, Tanjung Aru, Petagas, Kawang and Liawan which are already under serious threat as the foreigners form between 20 to 30 percent of the voters.

Awang is also worried that Umno will produce more so-called Malays by awarding ICs to more foreigners. He said the Mobile National Registration Services will continue to operate and they are foreigner-friendly and the agents for the foreigners are actively monitoring the schedule of mobile NRD operations to fully benefit from them.

“As such we all need to wake up to this reality, and to oppose the pro-foreigner attitude of many Sabah Umno leaders, or our future generations will suffer and curse us for our neglect and inaction,” he said.

raymond tombung
raytombung@yahoo.com