CURSE OF NO. 13, THE END OF SABAH BN?

By : JASON MATIUS

KOTA KINABALU: There is now serious talk spreading among the Sabah opposition parties concerning the effect of numbers in the political fortunes of political parties in Sabah and to the opposition parties’delight, the numbers appear to point to the death knell of the Barisan Nasional in the next general election.

A series of texts messages and excited conversations concerning the number thirteen, which prophesying BN’s supposed impending fall, have been making their rounds among mainly opposition supporters here.

These messages remind Sabahans of the fact that USNO, Sabah ’s first government, was defeated by Berjaya in 1976 (7 + 6 = 13), Berjaya was defeated by PBS in 1985 (8 + 5= 13), and PBS was toppled from power by BN in 1994 (9 + 4 = 13). Also interesting is that each of these three governments ruled for exactly nine years!

Whether you are superstitious or not, you’d admity it’s not easy to simply brush aside these uncanny series of 9s and 13s which marked the length of life and sensational deaths of three past governments.

Many even believe this is Sabah ’s equivalent to Malaysia ’s strange RAHMAN prophecy, the arrangement of initials of the names of all the past prime ministers from the beginning to the present one. Many of those who believe these are not mere coincidences, are also convinced the Sabah ’s series of 13s will continue at least to the next general election.

This belief is reinforced by the fact that for the forthcoming polls, the number 13 is not even hidden like in the past in which the last two digits of the year had to be added to come up with the jinxed number 13.

In GE13 the number is wholly and clearly written, not once but TWICE, i.e. the last two digits of the year, and in the number of the times the general elections will be conducted! One clearly written 13 is bad enough, but twice?

In the past, many observers were expecting the Sabah BN to fall in 2003, i.e. nine years after 1994, but when it didn’t happen, BN supporters had said BN had successfully broke the nine-year jinx.

But now some can argue for the interesting fact that the nine-year series has not been broken, but simply doubled to 18 years, i.e. to 2012, plus a few month to reach 2013, the year which ends with 13.

Other than these numbers, it has been mentioned in the biography of the late Tun Fuad Stephens that when he won his state assembly seat in Kiulu in 1985, his majority was exactly 1,111.

To the Chinese observers it was a bad omen because 1111 added to four and four in Chinese is pronounced the same way as the word for death. Shortly afterward Stephens along with many others died in a plane crash which is now called the Double Six Tragedy because it happened on the June 6.

Many people, however, say it should have been called the Triple Six Tragedy, to include the year 1976, the year it happened; hence completing it to 666, which is the number of the devil.

Will the jinx of the number 13 really see the end of Sabah BN in the hands of the opposition? Many people can’t wait to find out.