By: JOE FERNANDEZ
The hitherto elusive 3rd Force was given a national platform when state rights activist Jeffrey Kitingan introduced the United Borneo Front (UniBorF) in a ceramah (talk), dubbed the Borneo Tea Party, before the media and a 500-strong capacity crowd in Kota Kinabalu this afternoon.
UniBorF, which translates as Barisan Borneo Bersatu, will remain an ad hoc apolitical human rights and civic action movement working across the political divide ‘to call a spade, a spade’.
The NGO will address the issue of Sabah and Sarawak being ‘cheated” in the Malaysian Federation and treated merely as two – the term used was ‘appendages’ – among thirteen states by the Federal Government. The two states see Malaysia historically as a partnership in equality of three territories i.e. including Peninsular Malaysia.
UniBorF will not have exclusive right to the Borneo-based 3 rd Force. Instead, it would promote the idea (3 rd Force) among all political parties in Sabah and Sarawak, NGOs and individuals. It will also make common cause with marginalized communities in Peninsular Malaysia which can help empower Sabah and Sarawak and vice versa.
“UniBorF will help bring the people together to address the historical wrongs done to the people of Sabah and Sarawak since 1963 by Malaysia,” said Jeffrey at a downtown venue in the Sabah capital. “Again, feeling cheated sums up the widespread feeling among the people in Sabah and Sarawak towards Malaysia.”
This (3rd Force), continued Jeffrey, is our struggle, our future, our destiny. The difference for us then and now is the sad fact that the ‘orang putih’ have been replaced by the ‘orang Malaya’ as our rulers, he added. “This is an unpalatable fact that the present generation will no longer allow to be swept under the carpet.”
Evidently, the 3rd Force is not about selecting people to be legislators but about addressing the fact that the current political models in the country, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and the Barisan Nasional (BN), does not allow for any or little discussion about the Sabah, Sarawak agenda. Hence, the political leaders in Sabah and Sarawak have failed to represent the wishes of the people.
However, the General Election of 2008 has opened up a historical window of opportunity to address the Sabah and Sarawak agenda. The 3rd Force takes cognizance of this fact.
We were assured, recalled Jeffrey, that the end of British rule in 1963 would not mean the exchange of one form of colonialism for another. Unfortunately, this – “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.”
As a major case in point, the Sabah strongman cites as evidence Putrajaya’s imposition of proxy rule in the two Malaysian Borneo states. Effectively, this has been done by disenfranchising the native majority and marginalizing them, he said. “Putrajaya’s modus operandi in Sabah and Sarawak since 1963 has been to thrust leaders on the people. Genuine leaders of the people are criminalized, demonized, dehumanized, neutralized, isolated, marginalized and eliminated, if not exterminated.”
Putrajaya’s proxies in Kota Kinabalu and Kuching, figures Jeffrey, have a licence to do what they like in their respective states as long as they deliver the parliamentary seats to the ruling elite, keep the native majority hopelessly divided to keep secessionist tendencies in check and ensure that both states remain within Malaysia.
This Hidden Agenda has seen both states kept deliberately within a vicious cycle of poverty, ignorance and disease, noted Jeffrey. “Both states are the poorest in Malaysia, a situation facilitated by the Federal Government taking away 95 per cent of their oil and gas revenues while giving a pittance from the National Budget and the Malaysia Plans.”
Jeffrey sees the degeneration of Sabah and Sarawak from newly-independent nations on Aug 31, 1963 to colonial status since Sept 16, 1963, two weeks later, as an issue for international law. The issue can no longer be ignored by the United Nations, both the Security Council and the General Assembly, and the world at large, according to him.
He makes comparisons with Singapore which left Malaysia in 1965 after two years and Brunei which stayed out from the new Federation at the 11 th hour.
“When the Sultan of Brunei or the President of Singapore visits Putrajaya, they are given a red carpet treatment,” said Jeffrey.
“When our leaders are in Putrajaya to see the Prime Minister, they are kept waiting and, when they finally see him, have to bow and scrape and kiss his hands.”
The relationship between Singapore and Brunei, on the one hand, and Malaysia on the other hand is one of mutual respect, compromise and co-operation. By the same token, Sabah and Sarawak have been placed in a situation have they have to kowtow to their colonial masters in Putrajaya.
On a third point, Jeffrey points out that the Singapore economy at US$ 210 billion GDP is much bigger than ‘corruption-ridden’ Malaysia’s at US$ 205 billion GDP. Brunei, likewise, is one of the richest states in the world with a standard of living in the stratosphere unlike neighbouring poverty-stricken Sabah and Sarawak.
Moving ahead, Jeffrey sees the need for the Federal Government putting in place compliance mechanisms that will ensure that the promises of Malaysia in 1963 to Sabah and Sarawak are kept.
On a final note, Jeffrey said that Dec 16 was the day of the Boston Tea Party in 1773 which finally culminated in the independence of the 13 colonies of the fledging United States of America from the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland.
“We want self-determination. It is our right,” thundered Jeffrey. “We want to be respected and not be an afterthought in the Federation or the Constitution. We want to be a partner in nation-building, not be expected to passively accept crumbs and be thankful for it.”
Jeffrey was also peppered with questions from the floor after his delivery. Later at a press conference, he advised the media to confine their questions to the 3 rd Force and UniBorF and not go off at a tangent into unrelated areas in search of sensationalism and speculative stories.
He recalled that a simple press statement on Tues to inform about today’s gathering had generated tons of speculative material in the media for no rhyme or reason.
A distinction must be made, Jeffrey reminded the media, between the 3 rd Force and UniBorF on the one hand and political parties on the other hand.
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