How to Think As Malaysian When There Is No Malaysia By Dr Jeffrey Kitingan

Please do read my conclusion at the end.

PRESS STATEMENT

Saturday, 17 August 2019

*How To Think As Malaysian When There Is No Malaysia? – Dr. Jeffrey*

Kota Kinabalu:  

“The Prime Minister and the Federal government need to understand why Sabahans and Sarawakians are not thinking as Malaysians first and rectify the situation.  It cannot be a one-way street and only asking Sabahans and Sarawakians to comply” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, President of STARSabah,

Dr. Jeffrey, who is also MP for Keningau and State Assemblyman for Tambunan, was responding to PM Dr. Mahathir’s call for Sabah and Sarawakians to think as Malaysians first.

The “Malaysia” promoted and agreed by our forefathers does not exist as the “Malaysia” that exists today is not what was agreed prior to MA63.

“What was agreed, promised and assured were, amongst others: 

(1) independence through the formation of Malaysia which even Tunku Abdul Rahman promised was “absolute independence in the Federation”;

(2) equal partners through a merger and that a new nation would be created, a confederation, with the Borneo Territories retaining their individualities, 

(3) freedom of religion with no official religion for Sabah and Sarawak with a promise by Tunku that Malaysia would be secular and not be turned into an Islamic state; 

(4) English as an official language, 

(5) the political franchise in Sabah and Sarawak will belong exclusively to the people of Sabah and Sarawak, 

(6) promises of development and security for the Borneo Territories,

(7) Sabah and Sarawak natives would be protected, 

(8) the people of Sabah and Sarawak shielded by immigration powers; 

(9) there would be Borneonisation and that Malayans would not be the new “expatriates” replacing the British, 

(10) revenues derived from Sabah and Sarawak to be returned with Sabah specifically provided 40% of the revenues” 

said Dr. Jeffrey who added that they were facts of history and well documented.

Instead, it turned out that Malaysia is only a change of name for Malaya and Malaysia is Malaya.  

There was no new nation or new federation.  

The federation that is now called Malaysia is actually the Federation of Malaya created in 1957.  

The independence celebrated by Malaysians every 31st August is the independence of Malaya and the age of Malaysia dates from 31 August 1957 instead of Malaysia Day, 16th September 1963. 

As a matter of fact, Malaysia Day has never been celebrated by the Federal government in any part of Malaya but held routinely in Sabah and Sarawak only. 

These manipulations were done during the Alliance/Barisan Nasional regimes and being continued by the present Pakatan Harapan government.  There is no difference between them and in Sabah, we call them “dua kali lima (2 x 5)”.

• From the harsh realities since 16 September 1963, the historical MA63 is nothing more than merely a Malayan takeover document, a false ideal to mislead the Borneo leaders into forming Malaysia and enslaving Sabah and Sarawak, condemning them to be neo-colonies and vassal states and their rich resources siphoned off to develop Malaya. 
• 
  
• Even the constitutionally provided 40% revenues to be returned to Sabah remain unfulfilled by the Pakatan government.  

MA63 was clearly a British-Malayan conspiracy to takeover the sovereignty of the Borneo Territories and to deprive them of self-determination and real independence as provided under the United Nations General Assembly Resolutions 1514 and 1541.

• If not for the oil and gas resources from Sabah and Sarawak, the Malaya today would even be poorer than Sabah and Sarawak now.  
• There will be no good highways with multi-level flyovers and insufficient money to pay the civil servants.  
• Even the Petronas Twin Towers or Putrajaya would not have been built without the oil money from Petronas, the latter under the guise of Putrajaya Holdings.

(OSTB : Dont forget Proton burnt our oil money. Dont forget F1 Formula Racing. And then Proton, Bank Bumi and MAS were bailed out by directly by Petronas. So thank you Sabah and Sarawak.)  

Today, after leaving Malaysian in 1963, Singapore has the 3rd highest per capital income in the world followed in 5th place by Brunei who opted out of Malaysia at the last minute.  

• Imagine, what Sabah and Sarawak would be today if they had not formed Malaysia and had kept their rich resources for their own development.  
• Perhaps, they may even have the world’s tallest buildings and the biggest native cultural cities in the world.

(OSTB : No this would not have happened. Do read my comments below.)

“Alas, it is not to be” lamented Dr. Jeffrey.  Instead, today, as it was with Malaya, the Malays want to and insist in keeping Malay racial supremacy @ Ketuanan Melayu, which has nothing to do with Sabah and Sarawak.  

To add salt to the wound, the demography of Sabah was destroyed and altered from a natives majority to an imported Malay-Muslim majority during the Mahathir-era and now made worse under the Warisan regime of “Sabah Ubah” with foreigners and imported Sabahans screaming “Sabah Kita Punya”.

Today, Malaysia @ Malaya is the most racially and religiously polarised nation in the world and promoting racial and religious extremism and even promoting the allegedly charged terrorist mastermind Zakir Naik!  

One would have thought that under Malaysia Baru, things would change for the better but it appears that the Pakatan Harapan is either unable to control the race and religion narrative or it has no intention to do so and merely to continue where Barisan has left off in PRU-14 on 9th May 2018.

So, please understand Mr Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir, why we, Sabahans and Sarawakians, cannot think Malaysians first.

• “We don’t want to be part of Malaya nor this version of Malaysia; 
• we don’t want Ketuanan Melayu or Ketuanan Islam as we want equality for all, 
• a secular, harmonious, modern and progressive multi-racial, multi-cultural Malaysia for all Malaysians regardless of race, religion or ethnicity!

If the Malayans, Malays and the Federal government insist that Malaysia is “Tanah Melayu” and for Malays and not Malaysians, then by all means go ahead and do so in Malaya BUT let Sabah Sarawak be free so that you can be free to do what you want in Malaya.  

Sabahans and Sarawakians do not want any part of it.

To further enhance Malaysia’s unity and future, BERSIH’s call for the 2nd RCI is not only timely but also necessary and of utmost importance if the future and sovereignty of Malaysia is to be protected and not controlled by illegals unlawfully given citizenships with voting rights. 

Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan.

My comments :

A fantastic piece of writing. Congratulations Dr Jeffrey Kitingan.

A couple of my thoughts.  

1. August 31 Merdeka Day versus Malaysia Day.

Well Malaysia Day is already a public holiday. Too many public holidays in Malaysia.

Firstly my view is we should just leave Malaysia Day as it is. 

Also it is a small matter.  

Let us just stick with August 31, 1957 Merdeka Day.

Sabah and Sarawak did join the larger entity Peninsula Malaya. 

The population, the administrative infrastructure etc was all on the Peninsula. 

It is exactly like the United States of America. 

Their independence was achieved on July 4th, 1776.  

There were only 13 states that became independent. 

Over the next 150 years other states 'joined' the United States. 

Now they have 50 states in the USA.

The "Republic" of Texas joined the US in 1845.  

Hawaii was the last 'state' to join the US - on August 21st, 1959.  

Texas and Hawaii do not insist that they must have a 'USA Day' like how we have a Malaysia Day. There is only US Independence Day on July 4th every year.

Today Guam, the Marianas,  the US Marshall Islands etc are unincorporated and organized territory   of the US but not full states. In future they may become full fledged states of the US.  Even if they do, American Independence Day is still July 4th every year. 

And who knows, when the oil runs out in the future, Brunei might still join Malaysia.

Southern Thailand may join Malaysia (Narathiwat, Patani, Yala)

Or Mindanao, Basilan, Jolo, Palawan may join Malaysia.

Will there be another new "Malaysia Day" then?

I dont think so.  Lets just stick to August 31 as our Hari Merdeka.

My suggestion is we just STOP CELEBRATING Merdeka or Malaysia Day. 

Less TWO public holidays.  Can get more work done. 

For how many more years do we want to remind ourselves that we were slaves?

Colonised for 500 years?

The Muslims ruled Spain for almost 800 years. Then the Spanish threw out the Muslims in 1492.  But the Spanish do not celebrate any "Independence Day".

The Romans ruled Britain for almost 400 years. The Romans left in 410 AD. The British do not celebrate their "independence" from Rome.

So lets stop celebrating Merdeka. 

Lets stop reminding ourselves that we were slaves and colonised. 

2.   If they did not join Malaysia, would Sabah and Sarawak have become prosperous like Singapore and Brunei?

The straight answer is NO.  Both Sabah and Sarawak would have become third world, corrupted. despotic countries.

In the 90s I travelled to Sabah often for business. I was with the bank. We did plenty business in Sabah.  I financed some of those complexes you see in KK today. Plus that huge resort. 

Yo, the Sabahans were corrupted.  

Really, really corrupted.  

And I believe they are until today.

Its a way of life.

Look at the Philippines in that same period. Look at Indonesia in that same period (and Indonesia has so much oil and gas).  

Did Indonesia become rich and prosperous? NO. Only the despots, the corrupt, the cronies, the crooked became rich. The general masses became poor. Until today.

So Dr Jeffrey, Sabah and Sarawak would have failed miserably if they had gone on their own AT THAT POINT IN TIME.

Then there is one more factor. 

You can change the name of both Sarawak and Sabah to the Chinese Republic of Sarawak and the Chinese Republic of Sabah.

Because lets face it. The Chinese people, those terribly hard working and creative people, run the entire business and economy in both Sabah and Sarawak. More in Sarawak. The Chinese fully control Sarawak. Also Sabah.

50 years ago if Sabah and Sarawak had gone independent, the Chinese would have completely dominated all aspects of both Sabah and Sarawak - maybe even its politics. 

I am not saying this in any negative way (against the Chinese). 

It may not be a bad thing. (Look at Singapore).

But for Jeffrey Kitingan to say that bumiputera Sabahans and Sarawakians may have done much better if they had not joined Malaysia is a bit of a stretch. 

My suggestion is stay within Malaysia. But dont support those racist and psycho religionist  parties anywhere.

Only support those parties and those people who share what you have so beautifully stated above :

• we want equality for all, 
• a secular, harmonious, modern and progressive multi-racial, multi-cultural Malaysia for all Malaysians regardless of race, religion or ethnicity

Is it ok if I support you in this quest?

Birds of a feather should stick together.