“Sabah should just separate; be its own state!” my colleague D tells me. It’s Friday night and a bunch of us tired journalists are winding down over drinks.
I stare at him across the table, wondering if he’s being facetious. Maybe it’s the Guinness that’s making him light-headed and I wonder if he realises how closely he’s flirting with sedition.
Maybe I should be thankful he’s not drunk enough to get flirtatious with me but instead I sigh. Not at the absence of our chemistry but at having to, as a Sabahan, explain why just quitting Malaysia isn’t an option.
It’s not that simple, I tell him.
It’s the best solution, he insists.
D isn’t even from Sabah. He gets mistaken for an east Malaysian once in a while despite being very much Chinese. All he knows about Sabahans is they seem to sing a lot.
I start wondering if he’s drunk when he starts mentioning some hot Sabah chick he met who could really sing and “she had great (breasts) too.”
Rather than attempt to explain to him why his idea doesn’t make sense, I decide to put it down in words. He’s not the only one who thinks Sabah would be better off on its own but I disagree.
Legally speaking
When Sabah agreed to help form Malaysia, there was a certain 20-point agreement that put paid to D’s suggestion. Legally, Sabah can no more secede from Malaysia than it is possible for Texas to declare itself a separate, sovereign nation from the rest of the United States.
As the US Constitution prevents Texas from going off into the sunset, so does the 20-point agreement keep Sabah firmly within this flawed country of ours.
Not that a few Sabahans haven’t tried. PKR vice-president Jefferi Gapari Kitingan was detained under the ISA for purportedly calling for Sabah to leave Malaysia.
From my understanding, if Sabah did attempt to leave Malaysia would be pretty much within its rights to call in the army on the state.
Of course, there is the possible scenario where a state rebellion happens and the sort of uprising that will get the United Nations coming in to mediate.
Would it be worth it? I shudder to think about the destruction to our precious nature reserves and the desecration of what makes my home state so beautiful — our beaches, seas, islands, forests and hills.
Making bad worse
Sabah’s people would suffer as well. The state already lags behind where development is concerned with many rural areas still cut off from electricity supplies or piped water.
Starting over from scratch is not going to benefit poor, left-behind Sabahans. With poor infrastructure despite rich natural resources, and a lack of political will, independence would not emancipate Sabah — it would cripple it.
What I find abhorrent is the constant insinuation that all Sabahans need to do is vote Barisan Nasional out of power and choose Pakatan Rakyat.
Sabahans did precisely that in 1994. The people chose “rebel” opposition party PBS but were betrayed when the people they voted for abandoned PBS for Barisan.
Long before Perak, Sabahans knew what it was like to be betrayed by politicians who made a mockery of the electoral process.
Would PKR be any different from Umno in the state? Both parties have displayed appalling ignorance of the varied political landscapes in east Malaysia.
Sabah needs real leaders who understand what the state needs. Yet what the late Tunku Abdul Rahman said when he visited Sabah in the ‘70s still holds true: Sabah has no serious politicians. I would call them serious mockeries of statesmen, but that’s just my opinion.
Sabah would not be begging for oil revenue if our first chief minister hadn’t surrendered control of our oil royalties to the federal government. We might even be in better financial straits if only another chief minister of ours hadn’t blithely handed over Labuan.
What the state needs is to reclaim its place in Malaysia, demand the attention, the funds, the care it warrants for being a part of this country.
Despite the love most Sabahans have for the state, we still hold to that ideal of a country that embraces us and a nation to which we belong. The truth is that as states we are stronger together than we could ever be apart.
Sabah is not our country. Malaysia is
courtesy of Malaysian Insider
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