Neither BN nor Pakatan good for Sabah, S’wak

Declassified documents pertinent to Borneo, found in
the British archives, indicate that Putrajaya's
policies may be running foul of the unwritten
constitution of Malaysia.

byJoe Fernandez

Former Sabah Chief Minister Mohd Harris Salleh has never failed to appear from time to time as a bundle of contradictions to the extent of even embarrassing his own party leaders.

Harris, in his defence, may be said to mean well and even acting in good faith but often this argument is nothing more than the proverbial fig-leaf.

The man simply can’t be allowed to get away with it too many times. It creates not just bad but dangerous precedents. Both Harris and former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad appear to be birds of a feather in more ways than one.

However Harris isn’t even facing the remotest danger of being hauled up by Umno — assuming he’s still a member of the party given his penchant for sponsoring mosquito parties including Usno 2006 which is awaiting “registration” — on disciplinary charges for bringing it into public disrepute. This Mother of All Charges, with apologies to Saddam Hussein, is sure to cook anyone’s goose for good.

Confidence tricks in Sabah politics

Former Chief Minister Harris Salleh's latest comments
are indicative of how disengaged Sabah leaders, both
past and present, are from the man on the street.

KOTA KINABALU: Ask almost anyone in Sabah, especially those in the Chinese business community, and they’ll tell you the state’s economy is in a bad way and will be so for the foreseeable future.

Sabah’s prized assets are in greedy hands. Its golden crop – oil palm – is losing its lustre in the commodities market, its tourism lure is messy, the prices of goods and services have gone up, property prices have sky-rocketed and where jobs are available wages are low and the infrastructure remains creaky and basic.

With all this pointing to deepening economic woes, you’d think that the state’s politicians who have rarely been so unpopular would be cautious about throwing stones at glass houses that they are living in. But no, its still business as usual.

Stop PR stunts, get real with Christians

An NGO says this Christmas is the time for Najib
to ponder and really hear the Christians on the
issue of fairness and justice.

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has been asked to stop his “public relations stunts” and instead deal with the biased treatment his federal administration has meted out to Christians in Sabah and Sarawak.

Demanding that Najib “walk his talk”, a local NGO, Borneo’s Plight in Malaysia Foundation (BoPiMaFo), said the PM’s “nice words” in his Christmas message yesterday, rang “hollow as far as sincerity and truth is concerned” when compared to the “real situation” in Malaysia affecting Christians.

The foundation’s president Daniel Jambun said that in Sabah especially, the “Christian community continued to be increasingly marginalised and victimised by loads of actions from Najib’s ruling party Umno.”

Sabah immigration dishing-out Mykads?

It apparently takes only two hours to process a
new Mykad at the Immigration Department in Sabah's
Federal Administrative Complex, claims DAP.

By Queville To

KOTA KINABALU: Why is the Immigration Department in Sabah processing new Mykads and change of addresses? And when did the National Registration Department (NRD) appoint the Immigration Department to handle Mykads in Sabah?

Posing these question, Sabah DAP said it was tipped off by the members of the public that the process of changing to the new MyKads and address could be done at the Immigration Department in the Federal Administrative Complex here and that the procedure took only two hours.

“It is being done at the Immigration Department, which is suppose to only handle passport and work pass. Since when is the Immigration Department also doing the job of the National Registration Department?”  the party’s Tanjung Aru chief, David Chong Ket Sui asked.

Dealing with the Borneo Agenda

Is it any wonder that poverty is still prevalent
in the resource rich states of Sabah and Sarawak
after 45 years in Malaysia?

History will tell us that alliances between states are entered into to serve strategic, economic and the national interest of their people.

More often than not these alliances are driven by political leaders who dream of greater glory and national advancement that the sum of such an alliance may bring.

History will also tell us that no nation can survive an alliance with another for too long when the interest of its people are exploited and taken advantage of by the another.

Such is the situation that the people of Sabah and Sarawak now feel they are in – the same Sabah and Sarawak that joined with Singapore and Malaya to form that new nation of Malaysia.

‘Can we trust Sabah BN leaders, anymore?’

The only reason Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is
desperately wooing Sabah is because Umno can no
longer rule Peninsular Malaysia without
Sabah and Sarawak.

By Luke Rintod of FMT

PENAMPANG: A veteran political activist who was once with Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) said many among the Barisan Nasional leaders in Sabah had at many times told crowds that BN stands for “Barisan Nah Sial”.

Fredoline Edwin Lojingki, 71, who is now with opposition State Reform Party (STAR) said he could name these hypocrite leaders who are now heaping praises after praises on BN and its corrupt leaders.

“These leaders once referred to BN as Barisan Nah Sial but they are singing a different tune now because they are now ministers, they got projects and all the trappings of power,” he said in a statement here today in response to PBS Johnny Mositun’s statement yesterday.

Moderate but merry Christmas nationwide

KUALA LUMPUR: Christians celebrated Christmas in a moderate albeit merry atmosphere with some having to face the current floods in the East Coast.

As usual they attended church services in the morning before spending time with family and friends.

Traffic in the city was smooth as many people have returned to their hometowns for the festival or to finish off their annual leave.

Kuala Lumpur residents and foreign nationals took the opportunity to visit shopping malls such as Kuala Lumpur City Centre.

Sabah’s economy on ‘Death Row’

Sabah is slipping down on living standards as
families continue to feel the pinch of high
inflation and low economic revival.

By the time this article is published, the Mayan calendar phenomenon is probably way behind us and like any other hoaxes of the last century, there was no apocalypse or Armageddon.

Let us go for something more real and imminent:

Upon this coming Chinese Lunar New Year in 2013, the zodiac snake will once again dawn the world. With so many political and fiscal uncertainties staring Sabah in the face, will she ever survive the python squeeze or will asphyxia be her final fate?

Or will the worst be reserved instead for the ruling coalition which has hogged the nation’s seat of power for more than half a century of dividing the people and rule, when the celestial serpent finally devour the entire Barisan Nasional in an election tipped to be held in or around February?

Year-end visits to Sabah by Najib, Anwar

It is learned that both have scheduled their final visits to
the politically volatile state on Dec 28 and 29 respectively.

By Luke Rintod of FMT 

KOTA KINABALU: Come year-end, the country’s top two “rivals” in Malaysian politics – Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and opposition supremo Anwar Ibrahim – will once again slog it out in Sabah.

It is reliably learned that both have scheduled their final visits to the politically volatile state on Dec 28 and 29 respectively.

Besides wooing potential voters here, the duo will be also be fighting for spaces in the local newspapers.

Media editors here have spoken of the “interesting” heat emanating from the political slugging and its reach to voters across the vast state of Sabah.

Many BN leaders once said Barisan "Nah Sial", says Star veteran

By Ezra Haganez
PENAMPANG : A veteran political activist who was once with Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) said many among the Barisan Nasional leaders in Sabah had at many times told crowds that BN stands for "Barisan Nah Sial".

Fredoline Edwin Lojingki, 71, who is now with opposition State Reform Party (Star) said he could name these hypocrite leaders who are now heaping praises after praises on BN and its corrupt leaders.