UPKO against secession campaign

0

PUTATAN: United Pasokmomogun KadazanDusun Murut Organization (UPKO) does not agree with the views of the ‘Sabah dan Sarawak Keluar Malaysia’ (SSKM) movement allegedly being campaigned by an individual named Doris Jones through the social media.

Its acting president, Datuk Wilfred Madius Tangau, said that UPKO rejected the campaign as it was being undertaken by an individual who is said to be from Sarawak but residing in London.

“We urge UPKO members not to be involved in the SSKM campaign as it could confuse the rakyat as a whole. I also advise UPKO members to refrain from forwarding the campaign to others on the social media,” Tangau said, when met after officiating the UPKO Penampang, Putatan, Kota Kinabalu and Sepanggar divisions’ joint convention here yesterday.

The Tuaran member of parliament also pointed out that a culture has emerged where people are simply forwarding messages, articles and things they received via social media.

“Copy, paste, forward, that is what is happening and some do not read what they receive thoroughly or even understand the contents of what they are forwarding to others. In this case, it is the SSKM campaign and I advise UPKO members not to forward the campaign through the social media.

“This is a woman who is reportedly in London, who has not been to Sabah for a long time and is said to be from Sarawak, who have succeeded in influencing the public through the social media. They are possessed by the emotion and confidence with what she is doing … by simply opening a Facebook account under the name SSKM and uploading forms in the page.

“People are now asking ‘have you signed the form? Have you showed your support? Don’t you want to be a member of SSKM? But the issue here is, Doris John is not here, she is in London,” he stressed.

According to Madius, Doris had said she was ready to be questioned by the law but how can that be done when she is in London and the existing law does not allow Malaysia to bring her back for questioning.

“So we say to her, come back and face the music… if indeed she is responsible like she claimed,” he said.

In his speech earlier Madius said that UPKO Youth and Komulakan movements had lodged police reports some time ago and urged the police to investigate Facebook accounts that are anti-Semenanjung, Sabah and Sarawak.

“This includes SSKM,” he said.

Madius added that many of those who were influenced by the SSKM campaign were those who were always harping about the 20 Points memorandum.

“But we ask if they understand the 20 Points memorandum and most importantly do they understand and remember Point 7 in the memorandum? Point 7 says ‘There shall be no right to secede from the Federation’. So if they are championing for the 20 Points, are they also not fighting for Point 7?” he said.

Meanwhile, to a question of unity in the UPKO’s leadership, Madius said that the party and its leaders were united and they had taken the initiative to unify themselves.

“We have now appointed all the necessary people to the supreme council. Datuk Dr Ewon Ebin has been appointed as vice president and UPKO Keningau division chief Datuk Justin Guka has been appointed as a supreme council member.

“We have taken many other measures to unite the party members and I am satisfied with the development. I am confident that the unity in UPKO will be further strengthened,” he said.