KOTA KINABALU: The Borneo’s Plight in Malaysian Foundation (BOPIM) feels that Barisan Nasional leaders in Sabah need to be more serious in demanding for a raise in oil royalty.
Its president, Daniel John Jambun, said the state’s senior BN leaders needed to voice the demand with more courage and assertion, and not just use their youth leaders as fronts to make the demand.
Jambun was referring to the combined demand made by three youth chiefs, Arthur Sen of UPKO, Datuk Jake Nointin of PBS and Arthur Joseph Kurup of PBRS.
“The only BN leader who has been daring enough to voice out this demand is Datuk Salleh Tun Said,” he said in statement yesterday.
“This is a new stance from a Sabah Umno leader which is very encouraging. But the other senior leaders from all the component parties, especially the Kadazan Dusun Murut-based BN parties, need to make a united voice to pressure the federal government to listen to the desires of Sabahans for a higher share of Sabah’s oil.
“We all know that statements of party youth leaders are junior-level statements which are mere warm-up voices which senior leaders can brush aside as ‘their personal opinions’. But at least it’s a good start and the warm-ups need to be strengthened with a follow-up by the senior leaders soon,” he said.
“On the other hand, it is also high time the federal leaders start listening to Sabahans on the issue instead of continuing to keep quiet and deliberately ignoring the concerns of Malaysians in Sabah,” Jambun added.
“Federal leaders must begin to understand that Sabahans, including those in BN, are now openly asking for what they now realize to be rightly theirs,” he said.
“If this demand is not addressed properly in good time, the next development will be for the BN parties to contemplate leaving the BN. The resignation of Tan Sri Bernard Dompok as president of UPKO is already an indication, so let the BN leaders in Kuala Lumpur be warned of what might happen with the BN parties in Sabah and Sarawak where there is also a loud demand for the royalty to be raised to 20 per cent.
“If (there is) a whiplash in the form of a rebellion by these parties, the serious ramifications will be the real possibility of toppling the BN government because the number of members of parliament in Sabah and Sarawak — which are BN’s fixed deposits — will instantly reverse the country’s balance of power,” Jambun pointed out.