Organisers during the Sabah flag relay flagging off ceremony.
KOTA KINABALU (Aug 18): A state-wide Sabah flag relay has been flagged off to raise public awareness about an important piece of Sabah’s forgotten history: that it had achieved self-governance and independence, though sadly a short one.
Organised by StarSabah Wiramaja, the programme involves teams of flag bearers passing the Sabah flag to other awaiting teams in various districts across the state before it reaches Keningau on August 31 for the highlight of the Sabah Day celebration.
The party annually commemorates Sabah’s independence on 31 August 1963, following the declaration of the then North Borneo governor William Goode regarding Sabah’s self-governance and independence from British rule.
“We want to raise awareness regarding the importance of distinguishing the fact that Sabah’s independence is different from Malaya’s independence where Sabah has its own identity and its own independence which makes it different from the other states in Malaya,” said StarSabah Wiramaja chief Felsie Joy who is also the Sabah Day 2022 organising chairman in a statement on Thursday.
She stressed the importance for Sabahans to understand their history because what happened in the past set the chain of events that created the social-economic and political challenges they are facing today.
“We cannot deny the fact that Sabah is still underdeveloped compared to the other states in the Malaysian Federation. This is partly due to incorrect historical facts where many Sabahans do not celebrate Sabah’s Independence Day correctly.
“Celebrating the wrong historical date marks the start of degression for developing the future of Sabah. How do we create a prosperous future if we do not even know our own history? Are we Sabahans aware or are we denying our independence? When we decide to deny our own history, we dismantle the future for our children.
The question we need to ask ourselves is what does independence mean to us,” she said.
Felsie hoped for Sabah Day to be gazetted as an official state celebration.
Parti Solidariti Tanahairku (StarSabah) president Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan has for so long been consistent in calling for the state to assert and celebrate its independence on August 31 as it is the most important milestone of any nation.
He had said as far back in 2013, that the people must know that Sabah gained independence on August 31, 1963 and was 16 days before being rushed into forming Malaysia with three other independent nations, Malaya, Sarawak and Singapore.
He insisted that the correct history needed to be re-written and taught to the younger generation that Malaya gained independence on August 31, 1957, while Sarawak and Singapore gained theirs on July 22, 1963 and June 3, 1959, respectively, and Malaysia was formed as a new nation on “Malaysia Day” on Sept 16, 1963.
It was the date, he said, that the powers, rights and privileges to decide the future destiny of Sabah were handed back to Sabahans.
Sarawak officially declared July 22 as the state’s Independence Day “after public discontent about the public holiday Hari Merdeka being too Malaya-centric”. It has been celebrated annually since 2016.
This year’s Sabah Day celebration will start on August 30 at Pisompuruon Square, Tambunan for “Ambang Merdeka” and on August 31 in Padang Bandaran, Keningau for “Kemuncak Merdeka”.
The programme is jointly organised with Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP). According to Felsie, other parties and NGOs are also invited to participate to make it more meaningful.