A call for unity

With the internal conflicts currently faced by the Ruling Barisan Nasional Coalition and Opposition Pakatan Rakyat, a golden opportunity has been laid before opposition parties in Sabah, where a serious call for unity is needed. The President of the newly registered Parti Kebangsaan Sabah must reach out to STAR, SAPP, and USNO Baru to forge not only an understanding, but an alliance. 

We call on Party President Thomas Anggan and USNO Baru’s President Dulli Tiaseh to take this opportunity for the sake of Sabah’s future. Not long ago, Jeffrey Kitingan and Yong Teck Lee, also joined by Wilfred Bumburing of APS, had jointly announced their intentions of a united Sabahan front. PKS and USNO Baru should be part of this effort to change the fortunes of Sabah.   

The Himpunan May Day rally held in Kota Kinabalu recently was a total failure, I had advised many prior to the event to withdraw their support for the rally. My argument about rallies is simple, Sabahans prefer peace. It is not our tradition to bring our grouses to the streets; this is the tradition of west Malaysians which we should not adapt. 

If the sentiment is strong, the state government will fall, just like it did in the past. The local opposition should use their time and energy for better purposes. To fight a coalition, we need a coalition, a coalition of local opposition parties. Leave Pakatan Rakyat out of the coalition. 

The local BN leaders are stooges of the Federal Government and it will be the same if Pakatan Rakyat wins Malaysia and Sabah. It would be wiser to work together with leaders from Sarawak as we share the same interest in terms of rights.

Local issues should be our focus. So far the Moyog Assemblyman is doing a good job in defending the rights of the Kaiduan villagers where a damn is expected to be built. Where are the leaders from SAPP, STAR, PKS, and USNO on this issue? Why the silence? 

We have seen the how the Moyog and Milau damns affected those who were relocated and the process they had to go through, not to mention the amount of time it took to settle their problems in getting their new land titles. To be fair to SAPP and STAR, I praise their efforts in pushing for the 18/20 points, and the Sabah IC for Sabahans, however they need consistency. 

We need to constantly remind people as there is just too much distractions these days. I met a group of youths just last week and they said that they are getting fed up with the BN’s tyranny. So I asked them what sort of tyranny they meant. I couldn’t get a straight or exact answer. 

They just said that the BN is not good because PR says so. I asked the youths if they have registered as voters. All 18 of them are not registered voters the youngest of the group is 25 years of age. These are urban youths. What more those in the interior. I also asked them what they knew about the 1MDB. They fell silent. One made a wild guess and asked me if it was a K-Pop band.

To the local opposition parties in Sabah, this is a call for unity. There is so much I can write about but I will stop here until there is a clear sign that this call is heeded by the respective party leaders which I have mentioned above. I also call on the youths of Sabah to register as voters and go all out to support and vote for local parties in order to form a pure Sabahan State Government. We only have 3 years to the next election. Let’s demand our rights together.

For Sabah!

Gerrard Montikiu

Pemuda PKS