| Written by Admin sabahkini.com |
| Friday, 17 June 2011 03:11 |
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Saudara Pengarang, SAYA baru pulang daripada London selepas menemui Queen Counsel Anthony Lester berhubung khidmat nasihat untuk merayu kajian semula Perjanjian Malaysia yang ditandatangani pada 9 Julai 1963. QC Anthony menasihati saya agar meneruskan Kempen Memungut Tandatangan untuk mendesak Kerajaan Malaysia ‘Mengkaji Semula Perjanjian Malaysia 1963’. Menurut QC Anthony, Perjanjian Malaysia adalah ‘BATAL DAN TIDAK SAH’ apabila Brunei tidak menandatanganinya selepas 11 Jam dokumen tersebut disediakan dan Selepas Singapura menarik diri pada 1965. Kami akan melancarkan ‘Pungutan Suara’ berkenaan pada 9 Julai 2011 di Batu Sumpah, Keningau sebelum diedarkan ke Sabah dan Sarawak untuk dikemukakan kepada Ratu Elizabeth Disember 2011 kelak. Bagi pihak rakyat Sabah, saya mohon ehsan saudara dan Sabahkini.net membantu menjayakan usaha murni ini demi survival rakyat Sabah dan Sarawak dalam Persekutuan Malaysia. Salam Hormat, DATUK PATRICK SINDU Aktivis Masyarakat & Hak Asasi Manusia |
CigMA wants Sabah, Sarawak referred to UN
Posted on March 7, 2011 by Editor Sarawak Bersatu
An ad hoc apolitical human rights movement in Sabah wants to bring the “ambivalent” status of Sabah and Sarawak to the United Nations and place it before the international community for deliberation and final resolution.
The NGO, Common Interest Group Malaysia (CigMA), feels that after nearly 50 years of Malaysia, “it must be clear by now that it cannot continue to be business as usual in Sabah and Sarawak”.
“Already, the federal government has been in non-compliance with the 1963 Malaysia Agreement,” CigMA co-chairperson Daniel John Jambun said in a talk entitled, “The root causes of poverty in Sabah, Sarawak exposed,” here over the weekend.
He identified the 11 major reasons for poverty in Sabah and Sarawak. They are:
* Proxy state governments;
* Under-representation in the Malaysian Parliament;
* Unfair revenue-sharing;
* Five percent oil revenue;
* No oil and gas infrastructure;
* No Borneonisation of the federal civil service;
* Adat ignored;
* Loss of the one federation, three territories status;
* Illegal immigrants on the electoral rolls;
* National Cabotage Policy; and
* General non-compliance of the Malaysia Agreement.
Jambun was one of the seven speakers at an “Inter-party dialogue and leadership” seminar organised by the Borneo Heritage Foundation (BHF) in association with the ad hoc United Borneo Front (UBF).
The others were Jeffrey Kitingan, Nilakrisna James, Zainal Ajamain, Dr Chong Eng Leong, Amde Sidik, and Yong Teck Lee.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) adviser Simon Sipaun moderated.
Jambun said that non-compliance raised two questions, namely whether a compliance mechanism must be set up; or whether both Sabah and Sarawak should appeal to the international community and the United Nations.
The latter option, he said, “would be to facilitate the departure of the two states from the Malaysian Federation. Singapore (1965) is a precedent”.
Compliance mechanism
Jambun said that it was unlikely that the Umno federal government, “obsessed with ketuanan Melayu” (Malay dominance and supremacy), would ever consider any compliance mechanism for the Malaysia Agreement or give justice, belated as it may be, to Sabah and Sarawak.
“This must be borne in mind by those who are currently flogging the Borneo Agenda with the hope that the federal government will come to its senses,” said Jambun in a reference to UBF’s agenda. “It (compliance) is a case of too little, too late.”
The departure of the British colonialists in 1963 saw the handover of the two Borneo states to new colonialists in Peninsular Malaysia, Jambun said, adding that “these are those who believe in the vile and racist master race policy of ketuanan Melayu”.
The ketuanan Melayu policy in Sabah and Sarawak, he added, was kept going by local proxies of the ruling elite in Putrajaya.
Furthermore, he opined, “these stooges of Putrajaya are traitors” who have allegedly participated in the colonial divide-and-rule policy of keeping the Chinese and majority non-Muslim natives out of the political mainstream and from the leverages of power.
“To add insult to injury, they have willingly participated in the marginalisation and disenfranchisement of their fellow countrymen,” alleged Jambun.
This, according to him, was done through the placement of illegal immigrants on the local electoral rolls and the granting of MyKads through the backdoor by Putrajaya.
“What happened to the security promised us by federation in 1963?” asked Jambun. “This is one of the major reasons for grinding poverty in Sabah and Sarawak.”
He noted that the World Bank confirmed late last year that Sabah and Sarawak had achieved “the dubious distinction of bring the poorest and second poorest states in Malaysia”.
He wants to know whether both states agreed to federate together with Malaya and Singapore in 1963 to end up “at the bottom of the dung heap” along with the marginalised and disenfranchised elements of the third force in Peninsular Malaysia.
“Even more than the Chinese and non-Muslim natives communities, it’s the local Muslim native communities that are now feeling the brunt of marginalisation and disenfranchisement,” said Jambun. “They see their already small stake under Article 153 of the Federal Constitution being shared with the instant natives created from among the illegal immigrants.”
In Sabah, he noted, the local proxies of Putrajaya have now been dispensed with and Umno itself has struck roots to take half the seats in the state assembly and half the Sabah parliamentary seats.
He thinks that Umno invited MCA, MIC, Gerakan and the PPP along for company to mask their true intentions “and recently came up with the so-called 1Malaysia policy”.
This, in his view, “further ensures the continued enslavement of Sabah (and Sarawak)”.
Gross violations
In Sarawak, meanwhile, Umno is poised to enter the state in the manner that it has done in Sabah, warned Jambun.
“This is to ensure that the majority Dayak community will never be able to rule their own state.”
Jambun said that it was time the United Nations rescued Sabah and Sarawak from the “gross violations of human rights taking place”.
He also wants the UN “to help restore our sovereignty and territorial integrity and guarantee our security”.
He added that something must be done, and done quickly, before the situation further degenerates into “an even greater vicious cycle of poverty, ignorance, disease and violence”.
Jambun said that the departure of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965 raised the question of whether the original federation of 1963 still existed or whether Sabah and Sarawak have been quietly incorporated as two of the states in the 1957 Federation of Malaya (now masquerading as Malaysia).
“This (1957) appears to be the case and must be considered seriously by our legal fraternity,” he said. “They should convey their views as well on this issue to the governments of Sabah, Sarawak, the federal government, the government of the United Kingdom and the United Nations.”
Jeffrey wants Malaysia Agreement reviewed
FreeMalaysiaToday- March 28, 2011
by Luke Rintod
Sabah and Sarawak must seize control of their own destiny and shape their own economic and political model, according to UBF leader Jeffrey Kitingan.
KUNDASANG: United Borneo Front (UBF) leader Jeffrey Kitingan said both the Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat political models are out-dated, as far as the 1963 Malaysia Agreement is
concerned.
Jeffrey, who has experience in both BN and Pakatan, claimed that both political fronts pay mere lip service to the agreement that is, by its very nature, faulty for want of proper legal interpretation of the original intentions of the forefathers who brought this country together.
“They (Malayan leaders) failed since 1963 to include the Borneo Agenda as an important component of their party manifestos,” he told a UBF Borneo tea party at Kampung Bundu Tuhan in Kundasang on Saturday.
According to Jeffrey, the dominance of the Malaya Agenda in every facet of Malaysia’s economic and political lives since 1963 has led to criticisms and allegations of discrimination, mismanagement, corruption, and abuse of power, jeopardising Borneo’s territorial integrity, security and economic prosperity.
“From the outset, Sabah and Sarawak took an inferior stand and our leaders in Borneo were clearly placed in a weaker bargaining position.
“We wish to review the Malaysia Agreement in the context that all four original territories were equal and with the exit of Singapore, the Borneo territories of Sabah and Sarawak deserve a review of the agreement that would pay respect to their equality to Malaya in the federation,” he said.
True character
Jeffrey, a Harvard law and diplomacy graduate, said it was the right of Sabah and Sarawak to assert that Borneo be given the respect it always deserved since the founding of the Malaysia Federation.
“In 1963, rather than revamp and amend an existing constitution that was only relevant to Malaya, we should have amicably drafted a new one to reflect the true character of a new federation,” he told the group of 30 native leaders.
A printed text of his message was distributed to the audience among whom were members from the BN as well as Pakatan and state opposition party SAPP (Sabah Progressive Party).
Earlier, Jeffrey was denied use of a government-owned public hall (balai raya) in the kampung, forcing them to gather at a nearby house.
The former PKR vice-president called on the people to rally behind leaders who are pursuing the rights of Sabah and Sarawak in order to be in control of their own political and economic destinies.
“We, the Sabahans and Sarawakians, must amalgamate our ideas and bargaining power, and consolidate our positions and visions to allow a first-world nation to develop into a truly democratic Malaysia.
“It was never our intention to leave the colonial bondage of the British North Borneo to enter into a federation as a disenfranchised group of natives. We must now seize control of our own destiny and be able to shape our own economic and political empowerment,” he added.
Coming to grips with the truth
Columnist Datuk Stan Yee – Daily Express, Sunday 1 June 2008
Last Sunday, Sabah MP Datuk Wilfred Bumburing raised the possibility of the Moro Liberation National Front leader Nur Misuari taking the dispute over Sabah to the International Court of Justice. He urged the Government to act fast on the problem of illegal immegrants in Sabah, presumably to forestall further complications.
The people of Sabah have not been very worried about the claim. It is a non-issue, to use the Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman words. Our best defence has been our right to self-determination as enshrineed in the UN charter. That’s why Datuk Rais Yatim confidently brandished the Cobbold Commission Report, so to speak, when commenting on the Phillipines government’s claim to Sabah. This is the document that says the people of Sabah wanted to be in Malaysia and has been the main justification for the formation of Malaysia. But in the unlikely event that the claim goes to ICJ, and in the even more unlikely event that the ICJ ordered another referendum, UN sponsored or otherwise, there is a chance, however remote, that self-determination this time around may turn out differently as the demographic factor of Sabah has changed. The possession of MyKad as qualification to take part in the referendum would come in handy for tens of thousands of Filipinos residing in Sabah, thanks to “Project IC”.
There are two separate Sabah claims here, one by descendants of the Sultan of Sulu to whom Malaysia still pay “Cession Money” annually, and the other by the government in Manila based simply on the logic that what purports to belong to the Sultan of Sulu also belongs to the Republic of Phillipines.
Granted, few in Semenanjung know much about Sabah’s history, or the claim, but when Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim said that the Phillipines claim to Sabah is only made by a “small group that is political in nature”, and that Malaysia does not consider it as an official claim, that is surprising, to put it mildly. The Phillipines passed a law many years ago to declare Sabah their territory, and for good measure published a map that included Sabah as part of the Phillipines. They also refused to set up a consulate in Kota Kinabalu to drive home a message that you do not need to set up a consulate in your own territory. Yet we closed our eyes while waiting for a diplomatic note that officially proclaims the country suzerainty over Sabah. Bung Mokhtar is right in saying that we ought to deal with the Phillipines more forcefully. Diplomatic niceties have got us nowhere.
That leads me back to the Royal Commission that DAP tried to present in Parliament recently. The whole idea of the proposed Royal Commission is not so much to directly repatriate the illegals as to establish the truth about the “Project IC” issue that has bearing on the citizenship status of tens of thousands of Filipinos in Sabah.
The idea is, having established their status, the government will then be able to decide more confidently what to do with those who obtained their MyKad by fraudulent means, if it truely wishes to do the right thing about the illegals. But, first, we must establish the facts about Project IC.
Sabah’s leaders appears to have to minds about having a royal commission. In a recent statement the Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman said that a concertered effort by all concerned would probably produce better results than setting up the proposed royal commission. He was of course correct in the sense that whatever findings and recommendations that come out of the commission’s inquiry would still have to be considered by the government for possible action, and action must necessarily involve a concerted effort by many government agencies.
But let it be said that the problem has festered for more than 30 years and the idea of “concerted effort” to deal with the problem has been bandied about for just as long. Regrettably, today we are no nearer to finding a solution than when the problem first began to cause concern in the seventies.
Of course, one would much prefer that we do not have to resort to a royal commission which is costly, time consuming and a step that may lead right where we were in the 70s. But as the supposed concerted effort by these government enforcement agencies has to produced the desired results, many people want to know why. This is where the royal commission may be able to shed some light on the problem.
However, few in Sabah are so naive as to consider such a panel a panacea for the problem. As a big part of the problrm stems from the granting of citizenship to tens of thousands of Filipinos and a smaller number of Indonesians through “Project IC” scheme, allegedly directed in secrecy at the topmost level of the Federal Government, getting to bottom of this allegation is fraught with difficulties. You need to interrogate big shots who simply ignore your “invitation” to give evidence and refuse to answer questions that they do not like. This is why we need a royal commission with quasi-judiciary powers, even though these powers are restricted to the “Terms of Reference” of the commission and possibly also a date by which the commission must finish its work.
But, ultimately, the solutions rests on the nation’s political will to solve the problem. the findings of the royal commission together with recommendations could of course be highly influential and can lead to important decisions. On the other hand, they could also lead to a cul-de-sac and completely ignored by the government if such a political will non-existant. A case in point is the report of the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police. This Royal Commission was established by the King on 4 February 2004 under the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1950.
In its 576 page report submitted to the Prime Minister on 29 April 2005 and which was publicly released on 12 June the same year, the commission made 125 recommendations focusing on three main areas of reform-crime reduction, eradicating corruption and observing human rights in policing the country. The majority of the recommendations have yet to be carried out by the government and there is fear that the report is likely to suffer the same fate as most government reports – shelved and forgotten.
The report of the Royal Commission on Lingam video clip case does not give cause for optimism either. All that the Commission seems to have achieved after establishing the authenticity of video clips and the identities of the six people involved in the judicial brokering scandal is to break the raging fever that had led to its creation.
The Government is left to deal with the aftermath, apparently uncertain about what to do next. The news that the ACA has now begun to look into those involved appears to bring the matter right back to sqare one. For all the power given to the Commission, it seems that its findings can only serve as having made a prima facie to go before the ACA for possible charges to be filed.
Despite the clamour for its creation to deal with the illegals, a royal commission can even backfire and end up being little more than a way to end public criticism of government inaction, without actually doing anything. This is especially true if the commission includes persons from the opposition camp as well, which it should be more credible. But the inclusion of the latter may have the effect of cushioning the criticisms directed to the government. This happens when the sobering realities of what can and cannot be done are shared in a bi-partisan working group. Also, while we are fixated on the royal commission’s investigations, the on-going measures to solve the problem, little though they may be, may stall.
One way not be all starry-eyed about what a royal commission can or cannot do, but one would still like to see the government institute a public inquiry into this matter of great importance and controversy. What the people of Sabah want to establish is that the “Project IC” did exist and not a figment of the imagination of some people.
Through an in-depth investigation we may get to the truth behind the phenomenal increase of Sabah’s population, especially the 12% increased during the period between 2002 and 2007, from 2,730,100 to 3,063,600 people, as disclosed by the Prime Minister’s Department in a written reply to a question from Sepanggar MP Datuk Eric Mojimbun in Parliament recently. The Royal Commission may be able to link the extraordinary increase to the Project IC.
So far the government has not made any official stand on this widespread allegations. This raises more suspicion and the very act of ignoring such a great weight of public opinion that seeks the truth is tantamount to being disrespectful to the people of Sabah.
If the Federal Government has nothing to hide then it should be open to a public inquiry. If there have been shady deals these were shady deals of the Mahathir administration which the Abdullah administration can try to put right. Time is of the essence here. The longer the delay in establishing the truth, the more Abdullah’s administration will be regarded as a party to the Project IC deal that has caused so much resentment in Sabah.
By exposing it and the personalities who perpetrated it we can move on. We can at least start on the premise that the tens of thousands of Filipinos and a great many Indonesians who have been granted the MyKad identification documents did not qualify to get them and must therefore remain as illegals to be dealt with in whatever way the present government considers just and proper, especially for the people of Sabah.
Unless this controversy is sorted out, the Task Force has no reference point and may be obliged to honour the MyKad carried by these people whom Sabahan looked upon as foreigners and illegals.
Because of it quasi-judicial powers and the likelihood that it will be chaired by a retired senior judge untarnished by any known scandal, a Royal Commission can do much to get to the bottom of the illegals problem. The work will involve research into the issue, consultations with people in the know both within and outside of government. The warant may grant immense investigatory powers, including summoning witnesses under oath, seizing of documents and other evidence (sometimes including those protected by the OSA) and compelling all government officials to aid in the execution of the Commission.
But in the process of the inquiry, the daily report of interrogations would highlight many of the problem that led to the intractable problems of the illegals in this country. When the proposed motion to set up the Royal Commission was moved, what a pity the presiding speaker who shot it down was a Sabahan. His decision to disallow the motion was immediately interpreted as partisan. It was a pity because the DAP might have thought that a Sabahan in the Speaker’s chair would seize the opportnity to let loose a lively debate on the issue in Parliament. This would have been a welcome departure, as for too long the people of Sabah have been ranting and raving about this problem as if this is just a Sabah problem and not a national problem.
If Datuk Ronald Kiandee had allowed the motion, and even if by doing so he made a wrong intrepretation of the Standing Order, it would not be a terrible mistake. Many similar mistakes were probably made before his time. He would have erred in good faith for Sabah. Unfortunately he obviously thought that being correct and showing that he knew the Standing Order well was more important than giving Sabah’s desperate problem an airing at the national arena.
Partisan politics aside, in a matter as important as giving the nation’s elected representatives an opportunity to adress Sabah’s perenial plight, he would have been forgiven for making this mistake. Let’s hope that there will be another chance.
IT’S LABOUR DAY
KOK KOK KOOOOOK…. my alarm clock started my day today. Woke up at 3 a.m. to watch my dearly football club Liverpool pitting against Chelsea (happen to be my elder daughter’s favourite team) for another European Champion League Cup spot, after MU’ 1-0 win against Barcelona the night before. Feeling down with the match result, at 6 a.m. proceeded to the lake side recreational centre about 1.5km away, for a morning walk. On the way home, after five laps of brisk walking ( equal to about 5 km), drop by at the apek coffeeshop for a cup of kopi o kaw and a glimpse at today’s local paper headlines. As expected, it’s about our country’ Parliment first day sitting. “CHAOTIC FIRST DAY”, “BIG FOOT AND BIG MONKEY”. What a shame! Well, its only the first day, anyway. Hopefully these so called politician will fine tuned their approach in the next sitting. Let see.. after all it is LIVE!
Personally, i am not interested with their hooh hah.. a politician will always be a politician, as what the great KARL MARX once said, WE ARE A POLITICAL ANIMALS. He is damned right, no matter how apolitical some said they are, deep down the line they (we) are part of the political processes..
That’s all for now.. although it’s labour day holiday, but that is applies only to those who work hard to earn thier fixed salaries. To me, every day is a holiday..
