QUIET FURY grips Sabah & S'wak over Putrajaya’s 55-years Merdeka claim

Written by  Joe Fernandez, Malaysia Chronicle

The insensitive ignoramuses have done it again! The buntings and billboards, shipped in from Putrajaya, brazenly proclaim 55 years of Merdeka throughout the length and breadth of Sabah and Sarawak. This is the Mother of All Bullshit in Sabah and Sarawak.
Whose Merdeka?

Obviously, it’s Merdeka for Peninsular Malaysia or Malaya which became independent of British colonial rule of a sort on 31 Aug, 1957. The revisionists are claiming that the British never really colonised Malaya – the land of the Orang Asal i.e. the Orang Asli -- which they in fact hacked away from the Thai kingdom, after two wars with Bangkok, to plant rubber and mine tin. But that’s another story.

That i.e. 1957 being the case, why flaunt it in Sabah and Sarawak and expect the long-suffering people there to share in the joy of the people of Malaya in being free of colonialism and imperialism?

Bugis bid for Bumi status opens ‘Pandora’s Box’

By Joe Fernandez

The Bugis call in Sabah in recent days for members of the community to be recognised as Bumiputera just as in Peninsular Malaysia has opened a new debate about an old problem, that is, how to extend the Bumiputera (son of the soil) umbrella term to as many Malaysians as possible in Sabah and elsewhere who are not Orang Asal (native).

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has been cited by wannabe Bumiputera among the Bugis in Sabah as the most famous member of their community who can still trace his roots to Sulawesi in Indonesia.

PR/BN in Sabah, S'wak should be invited to join UBA

By Joe Fernandez
KOTA KINABALU : The PR/BN chapters in Sabah and S'wak should be invited to join UBA on condition that these said chapters will achieve autonomy, if they don't already have, as soon as possible.

To avoid the Sapp kind of about-turns, those signing up with UBA should take a Public Pledge and sign a Memorandum of Understanding with all UBA members.

All must stand up against racist taunts!

By Joe Fernandez
We cannot continue to tolerate a situation where people hurl racist remarks against us and taunt us whenever we want to be heard or give a hearing to others.

Indians in particular must shed the image of being soft targets. They need to speak up so that they can be heard.

Even one ounce of Indian blood, for example, is enough for others to defecate all over us for this reason and no other.

Everyone has Right of Reply, no need to run amok!

By Joe Fernandez

It’s not the done thing for Jeffrey Kitingan’s State Reform Party (Star) to take a leaf from the mosquito political parties in Sabah and run amok, samseng-style, whenever they run into a spell of stormy weather in the media. The verdict from the Barisan Nasional (BN) is that the party (Star) needs a dose of its own medicine after running amok in recent weeks with numerous statements in the media.

Star’s inspiration stems from one particular mosquito party in the opposition – allegedly planning a reverse frogging after the 13^th GE -- in Sabah which has been known to avoid press interviews like the plague, preferring to hide behind public relations statements structured as “news stories” and written by journalists on the take – “ang pow journalism” -- in the local media, and responding to criticisms with venomous personal and offensive attacks against journalists who incur its wrath.

Revisiting the term "Bumiputera"

By Joe Fernandez

KOTA KINABALU : A case can be made via Adat, legal, constitutional and Administrative Law for qualified  descendants of Pendatang to be accorded Bumiputera (sons of the soil) status in Malaysia.

The recent Supreme Court decision in South Africa recognising the Chinese community in that country as Blacks, refers.

Having said that, a distinction must be made between Orang Asal and Bumiputera.

All Orang Asal are Bumiputera but not all Bumiputera are Orang Asal.

No one can claim to be Native, to use the English term, unless he or she is an Orang Asal.

Jeffrey extends olive branch to party ‘rebels’

By Joe Fernandez
Leaders and members in the State Reform Party (Star), Sabah chapter, are heaving a sigh of relief after chairman Jeffrey Kitingan extended an olive branch to known “rebels” in the party despite being humbled for the first time by them at an emergency meeting this morning (Fri) in Kota Kinabalu.

Falling short of waving the proverbial white flag, Jeffrey for starters reportedly did an about-turn with about 20 party leaders including rebels. He claimed that he had never issued a gag order recently against them. It was stressed that the gag order was a “mistake” on the part of some of his more “over-zealous” aides.

No indications Jeffrey is a game-changer

By Joe Fernandez
State Reform Party (Star) chairman Jeffrey Kitingan is once again in the news for the wrong reasons. He has stirred a hornet’s nest in Sabah by claiming that all politicians in Sabah, including his brother Joseph Pairin Kitingan, are frogs.

He thinks that this will explain him being discredited time and again by Sabahans as the King of Frogs. Jeffrey has, by most counts, moved through as many as six political parties but all this is water under the bridge and for the most part irrelevant.

Consumer, Investor confidence down

By Joe Fernandez
KOTA KINABALU : We were earlier at CentrePoint Sabah after church.

One IT shopowner came running towards us. He opened a 2nd outlet at the complex in Jan. He opened an outlet in Megalong last year. It's still losing every month.

He complained that business at CPS, including his, was down 40 per cent in May compared with Jan. He won't make even RM 4, 000 this month to cover the rental at the 2nd CPS outlet. His workers here are down to two from three previously.

The number of workers at his first CPS outlet is down by two to three. For the first time, he's not sure the outlet can break even this month.

‘Money talk’ from Sabah muddles SWP picture

By Joe Fernandez

The latest talk along the political grapevine in Kota Kinabalu and the local media is that the Sabah People’s Front Party (SPF) might be more than willing to “accommodate” the so-called Sarawak Workers Party (SWP) on one condition: that the SWP fields and finances SPF candidates in Sabah under its (SWP’s) banner.

The alternative is that SPF, led by Deputy President Osman Enting, would apparently “go all out to destroy SWP”.

The prime-movers behind SWP aren’t taking the bait so far and are unlikely to do so since that would be tantamount to their admission of being complicit in an alleged illegality. It would have been quite a different matter if the story had not gone public. In that case, the prime-movers would have been more than willing to throw money at the problems to make them all go away.

No Putrajaya for PR without total Indian support

By Joe Fernandez
The consensus at the grassroots level is that the 13th GE won't see a repeat of the 2008 political tsunami in Peninsular Malaysia despite the alternative media because the vital Hindraf Makkal Sakthi factor, representing the Indian underclass in particular, will be missing this time.

The reasons are aplenty.

Bersih under super duper rich lawyer Ambiga Sreenivasan won't be able to help Pakatan Rakyat (PR), especially Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), compensate for the absence of Hindraf.
Amibiga is no match whatsoever for Hindraf. She doesn't represent the Indian underclass. She continues to get the support of the Chinese and Malays, the converted, for PR but the Indians, the crucial factor, is missing. Attacking Ambiga in racist terms is not going to make the Indians come rushing to her defence.

S'wak can’t step outside bounds on ties with Putrajaya

By Joe Fernandez

Malaysia Agreement or no Malaysia Agreement, Sarawak or Sabah/Labuan for that matter, cannot step outside the bounds with the Federal Government. Putrajaya belongs as much to the two Malaysian states in Borneo as to Peninsular Malaysia.

At a lower level, the Federal Government presides over the individual sultanates, states and territories in Peninsular Malaysia.

Five on-going issues, some simmering for long, have pitted the Sarawak state government in a head-long clash against the Federal Government. It’s anybody's guess how Putrajaya will bring the recalcitrant Taib Mahmud regime to heel. Surely, the Joseph Pairin Kitingan administration (1985 - 1994) in Sabah is the mother of all precedents!

Sabah MyKad Scam a la NRD a RCI Red Herring

By Joe Fernandez

The on-going probe into a bogus MyKad scam at the Tawau National Registration Department (NRD) has been touted as a timely curtain-raiser to the proposed Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the illegal immigrant phenomenon in Sabah.

It has been hailed as proof enough that the Federal Government means business on national security.

In fact, it’s nothing of that sort.

The RCI is not about bogus MyKads flooding the state, or the “rampant” issuance of citizenships which has emerged as another red herring, but rather the alleged circumvention of the Federal Constitution article on citizenship by operation of law.

Prime Minister's post a bridge to cross at the right time!

By Joe Fernandez
Pas President Hadi Awang should not have said that only a "Malay" Muslim -- probably "determined" by a DNA test a la Pas -- will be Prime Minister if and when Pakatan Rakyat (PR) seizes the reins of power in Putrajaya and initiates, forms and leads the Federal Government.

Is he implying that a "Malay" Muslim is not the Prime Minister now and that "Malay" Muslims have never held the post?

What he said is not unlawful in a Court of Law.

Star upset with Sapp ‘dirty tactics’ mulls options

By Joe Fernandez 

It appears that ties between the Sabah chapter of the Borneo-based State Reform Party (Star) and the Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) could be “much better” if not for the latter’s insistence on contesting in 40 state seats and almost a third, about five to seven, of the parliamentary seats in Sabah. The party reiterated this stand at its meet on Sun in Kota Kinabalu.

Before the 40/5-7 Sun announcement by Sapp, Star had been publicly toying with the “goodwill gesture” of conceding two state seats -- Likas and Luyang -- and one (Tawau) of the two parliamentary seats it (Sapp) won in 2008 as a member of the ruling BN. Star itself had announced in mid-April that it would go for all 60 state seats at stake in Sabah and 26 parliamentary seats including Labuan.

Claimants to defunct Sulu sultanate have hidden agenda

By Joe Fernandez
The only reason Muslim Sultans in southeast Asia claim to be royals is because they were previously Hindu rajahs. Example: Parameswara in Malacca.

In Islam itself, a Sultan is not royal but was democratically elected by the local ummah to be their spiritual head. These democratic elections in the Middle East were subsequently stopped somewhere along the way and/or partly by western intervention and colonialism which wanted puppet rulers.

Anyone who claims to be the Sultan of Sulu is the Father of All Liars ... Even if any claimant produces a DNA report to trace direct descent as heir to the so-called "throne", the "territorial" claim is sheer nonsense under international law. It's also a distortion of history, the concept of democracy, the rule of law and sovereignty.

Only Muslims can be PM: Why would other faiths want to be Malaysians then?

By Joe Fernandez

Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Aziz is not the last word on the Constitution or Islam, a religion which invariably gets a bad press for no rhyme or reason. Blame all the Nik Aziz in the world!

Is it any wonder therefore that a US Army training manual recently -- surely it went through the usual screening process! -- spoke of destroying Mecca and Medina and reducing the religion to a sub-culture, presumably for no other reason than the insane fact that it can be done, or must be done, in the wake of various justifications bordering on paranoia.

UN right body on 'internal colonization' dispute in Sabah

By Joe Fernandez

The United National Security Council, acting through its previous 24-nation Decolonization Committee, would be the right body to resolve the renewed controversy in Sabah on whether it and Sarawak, the neighbouring sister state in Borneo, have been effectively colonised by the Federal Government in Putrajaya and/or Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia) since Malaysia on 16 Sept 1963.

The controversy reached its zenith when former Sabah Chief Minister Harris Salleh, a one-time blue-eyed boy of the Federal Government, challenged United Borneo Alliance (UBA) chairman Jeffrey Kitingan in recent days to a public debate on the issue.

Labuan handover suit needs serious re-think

By Joe Fernandez

Everyone involved should perhaps seriously rethink -- from all angles and sides -- the suit pending in Court on the legality of the handover of Labuan to the Federal Government. They should consider leaving the matter in the hands of the politicians. They are the right party to take the issue to the people and the Court of Public Opinion to help resolve it.

Or do we want to merely flog the issue in Court for all it's worth and then deftly restrain the Court from ruling against the people? That will be like spinning a sob-story in Court and running away bawling loudly for all to hear.

If so, perhaps there are some who just want to make political capital out of it.

However, people always remember winners and heroes.

Star denies lacking in vision and mission

By Joe Fernandez

KOTA KINABALU: The State Reform Party (Star) has denied allegations by the Deputy Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat, Ronald Kiandee, that the party “has no vision and mission, lacks ideas and is struggling to the extent of harping on the same old ideas”.

Star, in a press statement, clarified that it’s a party of the young generation with a clear vision, mission, objectives, and goals and “this is reflected in its calendar of activities” or the Vimoga concept.

“The young leaders of Star want to address important issues in Sabah and Sarawak which the previous generations were unable to resolve,” said Star deputy chairman Awang Ahmad Sah. “We need to get our politics and relationships right before talking big about other things. The older generation in Star is helping to lay the foundation for the young to continue the struggle.”