SABAH PEOPLE MUST CHANGE MINDSET

By : CLEMENT LEE

SABAH was one of the richest and one of the most developed state in Malaysia during 1970s when Sabah was ruled by local Sabahan party, and compared to the then Malaya, which was still a Backward Kampung ruled by Malayan party during that time. This is a FACT!

Sabahan must change their mindset, belief system and have faith in our local Sabah opposition party SAPP whereby decision making by local Sabah leaders to fight for what we rightfully deserve as stated clearly in the Malaysia Agreement during the formation of Malaysia whereby each and every one; Sabah, Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya are Equal Partners.

Sabah is blessed with abundance of natural resources and we are the one who should decide how much we want to donate to help the 11 states in Malaya, not like what that is happening now, where Outsiders decide how much they give back to us as a result of the submissive nature of our current breed of Sabahan BN leaders.

Sabah's future and destiny should be decided by the locals, not Outsiders who dictate us. We must learn from the past, find solutions and execute it to ensure prosperity reach all Sabahans, especially our natives. Sabah needs to progress and catch up with KL or even Singapore in terms of development, standard of living, healthcare, education, security and more.

Sabah does not lack of capable individuals and professionals to manage and govern our own state. It was proven in 1970s when Sabah was doing better than the whole of Malaya. We have even outsourced our home grown talent to become Australia's Finance Minister today.

Sabah people should Reject all parties from Malaya which use race and religion as their tools to Divide and Rule us. We do not have problems drinking and eating with other fellow Sabahans of different faith and religion, sitting in one same table but Not like what that has happened in Malaya.

SAPP willingly relinquish the posts of Deputy Chief Minister, Deputy Finance Minister and all the perks from BN to fight for Sabah's autonomy. We are fighting for One Country Two Systems, and not a two-party system as practiced by Malayan PR, in which case, things will remain the same and we will still be controlled by KL, like the current BN led government.

Today political scenario in Malaysia is different. Either Malayan party UMNO or PR is desperately in need of Sabah and Sarawak to form Federal government, compared to Tun Mahatir's time where Malayan UMNO could easily win enough seats in Malaya to form the federal government. This is what we call Window of Opportunity!

If the folks at PR are sincere, they should let local opposition party SAPP to take the lead as Sabah's opposition front in the fight against, that is SAPP 1 VS BN 1 in the coming GE13.

SAPP has voiced up our support to assist PR to form the federal government and even encouraged PR to focus more on the Sabah parliamentary seats but in return Malayan PR should support SAPP to focus more on state seats (40 seats) to fight for Sabah's political autonomy. This is what we call a win-win relationship!

Sabah people had already given Sabah PR a chance to have 1 to 1 fight against BN in 2004 and 2008 but that proved to be a let down, as they ended up fighting each other and was Rejected by the Sabahan people especially in Bumiputra area.

If the Sabahan PR fields a candidate in our state seat to create a 3 cornered fight, this will surely benefit BN in the coming GE13. We, the people of Sabah people should discern who are the Greedy and Opportunist!

Should we, the people of Sabah continue to be overly dependent on Malayan party to fight for us rights and destiny? Or should we stay united and support our local home grown Sabahan party SAPP to fight for Sabah's autonomy and our children's future?

The choice is yours. A win for SAPP in Sabah, is a win for Sabahans!