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Friday, December 17, 2010

Jeffery Kitingan’s UBF launched on December 16, 2010

December 17, 2010

After Zaid’s KITA-AKIM and MCLM, Jeffery Kitingan’s UBF

by Joe Fernandez@www.malaysiakini.com

The hitherto elusive ‘third force’ was put on a national platform today with state rights activist Jeffrey Kitingan introducing the United Borneo Front (UBF) in a talk dubbed the Borneo Tea Party.

Speaking before a 500-strong capacity crowd and the media in Kota Kinabalu this afternoon, Jeffrey said UBF would remain an ad hoc, apolitical human rights and civic action movement working across the political divide.

It aimed to address the issue of Sabah and Sarawak being “cheated” in the Malaysian federation and treated as “appendages” among the 13 states of the federation.Sabah and Sarawak see Malaysia historically as a partnership in equality with what was once Malaya.

UBF wants to promote the idea of the third force among all political parties in Sabah and Sarawak, NGOs and individuals. It will also take up common causes with marginalised communities in peninsular Malaysia that can help empower Sabah and Sarawak, and vice-versa.

“UBF will help bring the people together to address the historical wrongs done to the people of Sabah and Sarawak by Malaysia since 1963,” Jeffrey said at a downtown venue in the Sabah capital.

With Jeffrey at the launch was lawyer and social activist Nilakrishna James, the grand daughter of the famous nationalist OKK Sedomon who had opposed the formation of Malaysia.

‘Sabahans, Sarawakians feel cheated’

“Feeling cheated sums up the widespread feeling the people of Sabah and Sarawak have towards Malaysia,” Jeffrey said.”We were assured”, Jeffrey added, “that the end of British rule in 1963 would not mean the exchange of one form of colonialism for another”.

Tunku Abdul Rahman’s Vow meaningless

Unfortunately, “the very thing that we feared”, was what precisely happened, he said. “First Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman’s vow that he was no colonialist remains as meaningless today as it was back then in 1963.”

Putrajaya’s Proxy Rule

A major case in point, he said, was Putrajaya’s imposition of proxy rule in the two Malaysian Borneo states. This was done by disenfranchising the native majority and marginalising them, he said. “Putrajaya’s modus operandi in Sabah and Sarawak since 1963 has been to thrust (its) leaders on the people. Genuine leaders of the people are criminalised, demonised, dehumanised, neutralised, isolated, marginalised and eliminated, if not exterminated.”

Putrajaya’s proxies in Kota Kinabalu and Kuching, Jeffrey said, have the licence to do what they liked, as long as they delivered the parliamentary seats to the ruling elite, kept the native majority hopelessly divided and ensured that the two states remained within Malaysia.

‘We want Self -Determination’

He said that this day, December 16, was chosen as it also marked the anniversary of the 1773 Boston Tea Party, that culminated in the independence of the 13 colonies of the fledgling United States of America from Great Britain.

“We want self-determination. It is our right,” thundered Jeffrey. “We want to be respected and not be an afterthought of the federation or in the constitution. We want to be a partner in nation-building, not be expected to passively accept crumbs and be thankful.”

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