‘KL will never give us what we want’

If Sabahans genuinely want to progress, they must first change their stance by adopting the Borneo Agenda and forcing the federal government to listen to their demands.

KOTA KINABALU: The ultimate objective of the State Reform Party (STAR) is to bring the people of Sabah up to the global stage.

Its Sabah chief, Jeffrey Kitingan, said national-level politics and socio-economic progress are only one of the first stages for the people’s development because ultimately Sabahans have to adjust to the higher challenges of the new globalised age.

“If we are truly independent, then we have to see ourselves eventually as a multinational or global player, and not just localised participant in the new age.

“This is especially so because the people’s overall level of thinking has changed a lot and they are no longer looking at the people of the peninsula as their role models. They want more.

“They are looking at the global progress as their benchmark for progress in many fields.

“In fact, if we look closely in many fields, the progress of Sabahans is actually higher than those achieved by Peninsular Malaysians,” he said in an interview recently.

He cited the use of the national language and inter-religious unity among Sabahans as two instances where Sabahans were better than their peninsular counterparts.

“As an example, the level of usage of the national language is much higher in Sabah and the degree of interracial and inter-religious unity is very much stronger in Sabah and Sarawak.

“I believe Sabahans can adapt to global situations better than many people in the Peninsula who are held back by their narrow cross-cultural outlook.

“Don’t forget, over there most Muslims cannot eat at the same tables with Chinese while in Sabah this is a very common feature of our society,” he said

Gross injustice

Jeffrey said Sabahans, on the other hand, are held back by lack of facilities due to inadequate infrastructures, and that Sabahans would have been a lot better off by now had all the guarantees in the 20-Point Agreement been fulfilled.

“Sabah has a lot of natural resources, but these gifts are being shared with the other 12 states, to the point that Sabah has become the poorest state in Malaysia. This is gross injustice.

“As such, the people of Sabah should no longer tolerate it. They must leave behind their half-a- century of patience and move on because Kuala Lumpur will never give what it promised unless we change the government.”

Jeffrey believes that the Kuala Lumpur sloganeering will never translate into reality because his many years in politics have convinced him that most of what the federal government promised are never kept.

“If we really want to progress, we need first to change our stance in Sabah and Sarawak by adopting the Borneo Agenda, and forcing the federal government to listen to our demands and then moving on to the global stage to develop Sabah.

“We don’t have to wait for the federal government to dictate to us, or plan our development for us,” he said, adding that such dependency can be a great hindrance to Sabah’s progress.

He said the government’s biased policies can be in the repressive cabotage policy, the restriction of direct international flights to Sabah, and the recurring statements from federal leaders to create fear and worries.

“As such, STAR is committed to creating a new paradigm for Sabah to be economically independent with its own direct networking with global trading partners.”