KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders, whether elected as the people’s representatives or not in the recent general elections, have been urged to be braver in speaking up on Sabah rights.
“It’s time they realize that Sabah does not really need to rely on Malaya in any aspect, and in fact, Malaya needs Sabah more,” said STAR Sabah information chief Jalibin Paidi.
He was responding to the recent statement by UPKO secretary general Datuk Donald Mojuntin who said that the present government should stop viewing Sabah as its fixed deposit and take it for granted.
Donald also said “the government seemed to think that we are its fixed deposit but they have to realise that even banks can be robbed,” he stressed.
“Of course, BN won Sabah but overall, we have lost many seats as well. We need to study why we lost the seats at constituencies where the majority of the voters were the Kadazandusun, Murut and Chinese.”
Jalibin pointed out that being afraid, intimidated and too careful in pushing on Sabah rights does not augur well for Sabah. Malayan leaders will remain comfortable and continue to ignore such calls and consider that Sabahans are not serious enough in seeking justice on their rights.
“For example, when Sabah leaders admit Sabah as BN’s fixed deposit, Malayan leaders will continue to ignore and treat Sabahans with impunity as stepchildren as can be seen in the discriminatory federal flood aid recently. When the floods hit the Peninsula, 1 Malaysia was in the news with all sorts of flood aid pouring in. On the other hand, the Sabah floods was not given the adequate news coverage and the flood aid was virtually nothing in comparison,” he added.
Jalibin also he did not agree with Donald’s statement that Sabah was not assured of security in the event of separation from Malaysia.
“It is not our intention to secede from the Federation of Malaysia. But if Malaya and the federal government still refuse to fulfill the promise that Sabah is equivalent to Malaya, why is it that Sabah has no right to demand secession?”
“All the terms as set forth in 20–Points that were pre-conditions for Sabah to merge and form Malaysia and Article VIII of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 must be respected and implemented by the federal government. If not, sentiments for separation will continue to rise, especially among the younger generation in Sabah. Making fearful of security as an excuse to close the shortcoming will only send signals to the leaders of Malaya that Sabah are not eager enough to re-claim their rights,” he said .
Regarding the issue that Sabah needs to restructure its financial and economic position, Jalibin said Donald should have viewed it more as a golden opportunity rather than being negative as seeing it as a huge problem.
“Even if it gets autonomy alone, Sabah should be getting 70% of its oil revenue. Sabah will also get 40% of the revenue of federal tax and non-tax generated from Sabah. Sabah’s total revenue a year is not less than RM40-RM50 billion. Imagine the rapid development that Sabah will enjoy with this big budget compared to the RM4 billion budget right now,” he stressed.