“THE reason advanced by
Keningau Umno Youth regarding the struggle for the 20-Points is creating “false
hopes” for the people especially the bumiputra communities in Sabah clearly
reinforce STAR Sabah’s stand that outside parties like Umno cannot best defend
Sabah’s rights” said Dr. Nicholas James Guntobon, Deputy Chairman of STAR Sabah
and chief of the Interior Zone in response to the statement by Keningau Youth
Chief in the papers yesterday.
Sabah
Founding Forefathers Visionary
“If we study properly the
20-Points, the Cobbold Commission Report, the Inter-Governmental Committee
(IGC) Report, the Malaysia Agreement and the other documents culminating in the
formation of Malaysia, we can see the vision, foresight and intellect of our
founding forefathers in defending Sabah’s rights in the merger to form
Malaysia” added Dr. Nicholas.
Despite the lack of
experience and education, these forefathers did not lack intellectual ability
and were able to formulate constitutional safeguards for the future of Sabah
and its future generations.
Despite being better
educated, some even in law, it will be sad for Sabah’s future if current
leaders cannot see how Sabah’s rights
are protected in the 20-Points and the other documents as envisaged by our
Sabah forefathers.
It has to be remembered that
the surveys conducted by the Cobbold Commission only showed that roughly 1/3 of
the people in Sabah were agreeable to the merger of Sabah with Malaya,
Singapore and Sarawak to form Malaysia.
Merits
in the 20-Points and Malaysia Agreement
Sabah leaders need to study
in-depth and understand the entirety of the entire process and documents
involved leading up to the Malaysia Agreement and the formation of Malaysia on
16th September 1963 and not just refer to the 20-Points or the Cobbold
Commission Report in isolation.
If the 20-Points had been
complied with or enforced together with Article VIII of the Malaysia Agreement,
Sabah would have been autonomous, united and progressive today instead of being
the poorest State, over-whelmed by illegal immigrants with the right to vote,
insecure and unsafe and losing its autonomy and political franchise.
If under Point 3 of the
20-Points, a new Constitution had been put in place instead of the Constitution
of the Federation of Malaya disguising as the Constitution of Malaysia, Sabah
would have maintained its autonomy and remained as an equal partner to Malaya
and Sarawak instead of being 1 of the 13 states now.
If immigration under Point 6
had been strictly enforced, we would not have a huge influx of illegal
immigrants and made worse by them being granted the right to vote and to
determine the future of genuine Sabahans. Security and social problems would
not have been problems today.
If borneonisation under
Point 8 had been implemented, Sabahans would have had control of their own
public service instead of being overrun by outsiders. It is not just the loss of job opportunities
or positions but Sabahans have lost more than 2 generations of human capital
development due to their rightful positions being taken by outsiders.
This loss of human capital
development have stunted the growth and development of Sabahans. In addition, the lack of local knowledge of
these outsiders have had a negative effect on the public administration and
service to Sabahans.
Sabah should have control of
its own finance, development funds and tariffs under Point 11. In 2011 alone, out of a total of RM109
billion, a total of RM22.7 billion or 20.8% in federal taxes and revenue was
collected from Sabah. This sum excludes
oil revenue and other forms of collections collected by other federal agencies
like immigration which is targeted to collect RM200 million in 2012. Lately, the federal government is also
intending to extend the Registration of Businesses Act to Sabah and with this extension, local
authorities will no longer collect the trading licence fees and lose their
right to approve trading licences.
Under Point 12, the special
position of the indigenous races in Sabah, be they be KDM, Bajau, Suluk,
Sungai, Bruneian, Rungus, Kedayan and so forth were supposed to be entrenched
and enjoy special rights to those enjoyed by the Malays in Malaya. One only need to ask oneself whether this
had been fully implemented or the indigenous races have been marginalized and
down-trodden?
Under Point 15, if the
education system had been maintained until today and under State control,
Sabahans today would have been towering over others in Malaysia instead of
being downgraded to manual labour in the industrial factories in the
Peninsular.
Under Point 16, the federal
government had failed to safeguard the constitutional safeguards that were
supposed to be guaranteed for Sabah.
Instead, as a result of various constitutional amendments, the rights of
Sabah had been trampled upon. A very
good example is the loss of Sabah’s oil and gas to Petronas with Sabah getting
a meager 5% for all its oil wealth. As
reported by the Chief Minister, Sabah’s 5% is expected to amount to RM775.46
million which translates to Petronas getting RM14.734 billion from Sabah’s oil
in 2012.
Under Point 17, a constitutional
safeguard was to put in place for representation in the federal
government. In 1963, Malaya was only to
get 65% of the parliament seats but today it has 75% of the 222-seats. Sabah’s voice in Parliament is worsened
with the Malayan-based parties like Umno coming and taking control of the seats
in Sabah further diluting Sabah’s rights.
The problem is further compounded when the local representatives of the
Malayan-based parties lose sight of their obligation to safeguard Sabah’s
rights and sovereignty and instead follow the agenda of their party and their
leaders in the Peninsular.
It is this loss or
subjudication of Sabah’s agenda that makes Malayan-based parties like Sabah
Umno being unable to best defend Sabah’s rights and autonomy.
And finally under Point 20,
the status of our beloved TYT should rightfully be restored as the “Yang
DiPertua Negara”. As an independent,
sovereign nation-state, our Yang DiPertua Negara should be accorded the status
as Head of State accordingly. If not
for the formation of Malaysia, our Yang DiPertua Negara would have been
accorded the same status in Kuala Lumpur as would have been accorded to the
Sultan of Brunei or any other visiting Head of State.
20-Points
Not False Hopes
By now, it should be very
clear that there are no false hopes in the 20-Points or the position of Sabah
as an equal partner in the formation of Malaysia. Rather, the enforcement or compliance of the
20-Points and Article VIII will bring about wholesale upliftment for Sabah and
its people.
The Sabah Umno leaders
especially the youth leaders should emulate the opposition and champion the
cause for the restoration of Sabah’s rights and autonomy under the 20-Points
and the Malaysia Agreement and as an equal partner in Malaysia. The time has come for them to stop treating
them as fixed deposits but treat Sabahans and Sarawakians with respect and
dignity and not alienate the two territories any further.
As a first step, in
conjunction with 31 August 2012, Umno Sabah should insist that Malaysia is 49
years old now and not 55 and to honour Sabah’s Independence Day on 31 August
2012.
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