STAR agenda not for chief ministership – Jeffrey

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KOTA KINABALU: The agenda of STAR is not for chief ministership but for the Borneo Agenda, said Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan.

“Whether Anwar becomes the PM or not, the chief minister of Sabah will still come from the party with the biggest number of support in the state assembly,” he said.

The STAR Sabah chairman stated this yesterday when responding to Sabah Barisan Nasional secretary Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan who had been hitting at the opposition, saying among others that STAR shouldn’t insist on Sabah becoming a nation within Malaysia, that Borneonization shouldn’t be an issue because over 100,000 Sabahans are working in the government, and Jeffrey cannot hope to become chief minister unless Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim becomes the prime minister.

Jeffrey said it is high time for Sabah to put its foot down and say it had had enough of domination by the Peninsular.

According to him, Sabah and Sarawak can no longer afford to remain subservient to Malaya in the Malaysian Federation because this has been going on for the last 50 years and the Sabah had lost a tremendous lot in the long process.

“Rahman has been very vocal in his defence of Malayan domination over Sabah, justifying it with all sorts of rationales,” he said. “This is understandable because he needs to show partiality to his bosses in Umno, but his rationales are contrived and in the final analysis he doesn’t care very much about the rights of Sabahans within the Federation.

“Why must we be subservient in our own house when we should be the masters of our destiny? As it is we are actually like buffaloes led by the noses. Even leaders in BN, including Umno leaders, like Rahman, are totally subservient to their KL bosses. Unlike in the case of Sarawak, Sabah has become a target of bullying and abuses as proven by the testimonies made in the RCI.”

Jeffrey challenged Rahman to state if he is happy with the now confirmed Project IC, and what he really wants for the future of Sabah.

“STAR has already achieved in its aim to change the old and outdated mindset indoctrinated on us by Malaya and the British that we are not capable of standing on our own two feet or to look after ourselves. As a result of our campaign with the hundreds of the Borneo Tea Parties Sabahans now realize that Sabah should be standing on its own two feet simply because we have the natural resources to enable us to become as rich as Singapore and Brunei!

“It’s time that we get our politics and relationships right after 50 years and demand our rightful share in the federation and not help to perpetuate the Malayan domination at our expense,” Jeffrey said.

“Rahman should understand that had the people of Sabah and Sarawak been told in 1963 that their countries would become the 12th and 13th states in Malaysia, they would have rejected the idea outright. And Rahman must bear in mind also that the states in Malaya did not opt on an individual basis to be in Malaysia. It was only the Malayan government which agreed to Malaysia along with Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore.

As for Borneonization, Jeffrey said Rahman cannot deny that the civil service is dominated by one particular race, and most government departments are still headed by Peninsular Malaysians.

“Rahman can continue to holler incessantly about the opposition being wrong in these matters in order to serve his Malayan masters but he needs to know it is too late for Umno and BN. STAR’s campaigns had woken up the people and no amount of efforts at convincing by Rahman will change their minds about the crying need to assert their rights against the new colonialism,” he said.

Meanwhile, STAR Sabah Wiramuda (youth) chief Hasmin Azroy Abdullah thanked Rahman for confirming the party is far from being an Umno agent following rumours being spread by irresponsible parties.

Hasmin said it is good that Rahman acknowledged the party’s existence in Sabah is to dethrone his very own party Umno and replace it with a state party like STAR.

Nevertheless Star Wiramuda found it difficult to swallow Rahman’s own interpretation of Sabah’s special position in the formation of Malaysia Federation in 1963 and thereafter its autonomous rights.

“We would like to remind Rahman that Tun Fuad Stephens once said in 1963 ‘Kami tidak mahu menyertai pembentukan Malaysia sebagai negeri ke-12, 13 atau 14’.

“Even Tun Mustapha Harun, Sabah’s Father of Independence, had at an Usno meet clearly said: ‘Kita tidak mahu kerajaan hanya bertukar daripada kerajaan British kepada Kerajaan Malaya’,” he said.

Surely both leaders would not have said such important statements if the wishes were just to become the 12th and 13th state in a new Federation, as Rahman believes, that was established together by four nations — Malaya Federation, Singapore, Sabah (then North Borneo) and Sarawak,” added Hasmin in a statement yesterday.