Has Sabah reached a breaking point?

KOTA KINABALU, 18 Apr 2010: A half century long marriage deserves to be celebrated. But in Sabah, three years short of its 50th anniversary, as a partner in the formation of Malaysia, a debate is raging over whether it is worth celebrating.

Of late, talk has been circulating over Sabah's diminishing stature and gradual impoverishment.

Various groups and homegrown political parties have started kicking around a course of action to halt the erosion of their autonomy within the Federation of Malaysia.

Smack-bang on its golden jubilee in 2013, the 13th General Election will have be called, at the latest.

Many see it as a golden opportunity to reassert the state's rights which has evolved into a political eunuch of the Federal Government.

Leading the charge is Sabah-based opposition party, the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP).

SAPP is garnering increasing support from Sabahans from all walks of life including long-retired politicians who once sat on the opposite side of the aisle so to speak.

Among those who have re-emerged to question the direction the state is taking is former Sabah Finance Minister Mohd Noor Mansoor.

The one-time Berjaya Party big-gun is advocating the return of power to a genuine Sabah-based political party and the overthrow of the present Umno-led Barisan Nasional government in the state.

Political observers believe unease in the state over increasingly blatant racial and parochial noises coming out of the Umno-dominated Federal Government has triggered a momentum for change in the state.

Mohd Noor however warns that this will not be easy.

The key to gaining power in the state, he said, is to convince voters that multiracialism and tolerance, which is ingrained in Sabahans, will always be practiced.

A task easier said than done judging from the performances of previous state governments.

The concept of race and religion playing a role in the politics of the state is a bunk, says the former state Finance Ministry boss from 1976 to 1985.

Mohd Noor categorically dismisses as complete nonsense the much talked about, Umno-promoted concept of 'Ketuanan Melayu' or Malay Supremacy as far as Sabah was concerned.

"There is no Malay in Sabah. We are a composite of all races ?there is no Malay in Sabah," he stressed to emphasize the difference between Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia.

"The (multiracial) concept means unity irrespective of religion and race, so if we tamper with it, if we dilute it, problems will start to crop up."

For SAPP, a party that he has since joined, to succeed, they must study the rise and fall of both his own Berjaya Party and that of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) governments both of which had also championed Sabah's autonomy.

He believes this is one of the main reasons for his party's downfall. He should know as it's something he has thought about for more than two decades.

"I don't know if (all those in Berjaya) feel the same way I do but I think the downfall of Berjaya at that time was because it did not fully respect the multiracial concept," he told a forum entitled 'Current Issues in Malaysia and the Future of Sabah' organized by SAPP.

"We gave everything (to the people) but we still lost because we were only merely saying that we are a multiracial party but not in practice," he told his audience that included SAPP president Yong Teck Lee and several veteran Sabah politicians.

Mohd Noor puts the blame for the controversial entry of Umno, a Malay dominated political party, into state politics, squarely on the doorstep of former chief minister Joseph Pairin Kitigan during his PBS government's rule from 1985 to 1994.

"I dare say here that while many people accuse (the late) Tun Mustapha as being the one who was responsible for bringing in Umno to Sabah, this is wrong. It was due to the superficial multiracial concept practiced by Pairin."

But he says it is not to late to reverse the tide of racial bias that is taking root in state politics.

He also dismissed a popular-held notion that there is no way for the opposition in Sabah to win in the next general election because Umno is just too strong to be defeated.

On the contrary, he said that unlike its principal body which is deeply-rooted in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah Umno is a mere ‘transplant'.

"Umno is deeply rooted in Peninsular Malaysia but Umno is only transplanted in Sabah. You can ask the expert, just like the trees, which one is stronger, the original tree or the transplant?

"Don't listen to talk that there is no way to win because Umno is too strong. Just remember what happened to Berjaya and Usno," he said.

He likens Sabah's ruling politicians to puppets on a string who are in power at the mercy of the Federal Government.

The present Federal-State relation, he notes, is akin to that of a master and servant, with a majority of state leaders including the Chief Minister being subservient to Federal Government leaders.

He said the Chief Minister was now appointed by the Federal leadership. Unlike before when a chief minister was elected and legitimised by the people of Sabah, he is now beholden to powers and favours outside of the state.

His mocking description of State leaders including the Chief Minister as 'Yes Men' and 'court jesters' to Kuala Lumpur is bound to stir emotions.

But Mohd Noor claims he has evidence of this.He cited as an example Chief Minister Musa Aman's knee-jerk response to Prime Minister Najib Razak's New Economic Model (NEM) that was unveiled recently as beneficial to Sabah, when it is still being debated in parliament and has yet to be implemented.

He contends that Musa was simply trying to butter up his political master when he did not even understand the implications of the NEM on Sabah yet.

"How could a Chief Minister make such a hollow statement if not because he was trying to butter his boss?" he asked.

But Mohd Noor also displayed political maturity and experience when he said SAPP's struggle for political autonomy for Sabah would be "a bit difficult for the party to explain to the masses, especially those in the rural areas."

"For Berjaya, our struggle was to bring democracy to Sabah and this was easy to explain to the people including the elderly because they could see what we meant.

"Mass arrest of people, mass conversion of non-Muslims for political gains ?yes it is true I dare say this ?so people believed Berjaya because they relate to this.

What would be required now, he says, is for the younger generation of Sabahans to explain to their friends and to the people in the rural areas what SAPP meant by 'autonomy for Sabah'.

He remains convinced that the present regime can be toppled in the next general election if the opposition in the state work together for a common goal.

He advised that the first thing SAPP should do if they form the next state government is review the Federal-State relationship to ensure political autonomy for Sabah.

This he stressed is crucial for the state's development apart from safeguarding the rights and interest of its people.

"This does not mean we want to leave Malaysia. Where else could we go? There is no second Sabah," he reminded.

On September 16, 1963, Sabah, North Borneo then, celebrated the end of British colonial rule and the devolution of powers along with special rights to itself within the newly formed Federation of Malaysia.

As it turned out, it was a dream that the Borneo state now looks at as a nightmare.

By Queville To