Dr Jeffrey disagrees with PM take on autonomy for Sabah

PRESS STATEMENT BY
DATUK DR JEFFREY G. KITINGAN
PKR VICE PRESIDENT / BORNEO HERITAGE FOUNDATION CHAIRMAN
November 4, 2010


KOTA KINABALU: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) today disagreed with the many contentions of Prime Minister Datuk Najib Razak's statement today on autonomy and democratic processes in Sabah.

PKR Vice President, Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said the Federal Government under Barisan Nasionalto (BN) rule for almost a half-century had not only disrespected Sabah autonomy but had at times trampled on the Malaysia Agreement and the 20 Points which laid the conditions for Sabah to agree form Malaysia in 1963.

"What autonomy? Even Borneonisation of Federal Departments in Sabah has not reached 10 percent until now," he said in a statement here.

Dr Jeffrey, who is also Chairman of Borneo Heritage Foundation (BHF), said, the UMNO-led BN rapped Sabah State Constitution when it came to Sabah in 1991 by doing everything to bring down a democratically elected government then.

"UMNO, using a divide-and-rule tactics did everything to change the political equation by changing election boundaries, and then took more than half of the 60 state constituencies to itself, usurping the rights of the state and disenfranchising the genuine locals in the end.

"The Federal Government has not respected Malaysia Agreement and the 20 Points by downgrading Sabah and Sarawak from equal partners to merely one of the 13 states, resulting in a diminished revenue for the state.

"That is why we want a review of the Malaysia Agreement. If they are sincere, the Federal Government should agree to a review," he added.

MEANWHILE, deputy chairman of Common Interest Group Malaysia (CigMa), Daniel John Jambun, in a separate statement took to task Najib for misleading the world about the autonomy for Sabah being respected and democratic process duly upheld here.

"Kuala Lumpur wants to control everything in Sabah. They even took away our rights to elect and appoint our Chief Minister and also our High Court Judges.

"Capable locals are denied the opportunities to head Federal Departments. Appointment of high ranking officers in the state now only favours the Muslims, resulting in untold discriminations against Christians especially the Kadazandusuns and Chinese," he said.

"They did the gerrymandering of Sabah's election boundaries and they issued fake identity cards to Muslim foreigners and they registered them as voters in Sabah.

"All this were done so that the Christian natives would be disenfranchised. The world must be told of this dirty tactics by the Federal leaders. It stinks to heaven, and Najib cannot hide this facts behind his sweet talking to the world about what has been meted to Sabah.

"Is this what Najib means by due democratic process being respected in Sabah? The people of Sabah and the international community do not think so," Daniel said in one of his terse statements so far on the issue.

Daniel said Najib's cry that the Federal Government had never sidelined Sabah from development does not hold water as Sabah, though the richest state, is now the second poorest after Kelantan, after near a half-century in Malaysia Federation.

DATUK DR JEFFREY G. KITINGAN

courtesy of The Broken Shield