UMNO/BN NO LONGER RELEVANT IN SABAH?

Sabah will never be short of disillusioned politicians out to parade their unscrupulous parroting and exalting their political masters just to stay in power, at any cost.

While the state is being plagued with massive unresolved issues such as issuance of MyKads to 'controversial and dubious individuals', the constant robbing of native lands, the unwarranted silence over historical facts relating to the formation of Malaysia and the prolonged hardship of the people of Sabah on the rising cost of essential goods,yet Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman seems to be floating on dream clouds calling Sabahans to subscribe to the 1Malaysia concept.

What 1Malaysia is he talking about? How can there be a 1Malaysia when serious issues remain unresolved and swept under the carpet?

In his Hari Raya message recently,Musa advised certain quarters "stirring religious and racial sentiments to take a step back and stop actions that could cause unrest". He further added that "it cannot be denied that there had been some issues cropping up in the country in recent months".

I'm stunned that Musa has kept himself in a chicken coop, as it's no secret that the serious issues that are taking place in the country all boil down to the mismanagement and abuse of powers of the government.

Musa's advise appears to be stoking racial sentiments, which is never an issue among peace loving Sabahans. I strongly urge the Chief Minister to be cautious when making such statements.

May I remind Musa that Sabahans are culturally, religiously and racially matured and do not fancy the concept of "Ketuanan Melayu" as demonstrated by UMNO.

The only "Sabahans" who may subscribe to this outdated racist call are the "New Malays" - people of all races and anything but Malay - such as from neighboring countries, The Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, India & the Arab and -stan countries. These people are willing to re brand themselves as "Malays", just to enjoy the special privileges and in the process deprive true ethnic Sabahans of much needed government assistance.

What more that the natives who depend on their lands for survival are losing it to corporations and the "New Malays" (bumiputras).

Are the people in power devoid of grey matters that would enable them to distinguish a true native from a migrant who has obtained a Mykad whether legally or through special projects?

As sure as the sun rises from the east, the current PKFZ scandle revelation which the government has yet to deny, other then swinging into action to investigate who leaked the document, one now wonders if there are such practices in Sabah.

The adamant stand and swiftness of the entire State Cabinet in pursuing the Sabah Development Corridor (SDC) Project should be probed further. Are there worms waiting to be uncanned? Will 'SDC' end up as an acronym for 'Sabah Door for Corruption'?

I urge Pakatan Rakyat in Sabah to close ranks and prove to the people that you are truly championing the rights of all Malaysians in Sabah.

Sabah Government Continues Hoodwinking Natives?

Sabahans today celebrated Malaysia Day with disgust and fuming that the UMNO/BN Government of Sabah have completely forgotten historical facts.While these 'misinformed politicians' may not have altered history,but their 'non-committal' in addressing and setting the record straight has further confirmed that UMNO/BN Sabah are mere stooges to their political masters.Actually I strongly suggest and urge UMNO/BN in Sabah to resign en-block as they have failed miserably in addressing an issue which have been going on for the last 46 years.

But today,I'm fuming on another important issue where the UMNO/BN Government of Sabah has played an active role in conspiring with the constant robbing of native ancestral land and in cahoots with huge plantation corporation.The natives of Sabah have been robbed and raped of their lands,and yet the government has not only turned their eye away but has down graded the natives to mere squatters.Ironically the three(3) Kadazan based political parties,PBS,UPKO and PBRS which claim to defend the rights of the Kadazan Murut community,have now shamelessly failed in their cause to protect their rights.

I had the opportunity to speak to Datuk Kong Hong Ming,a lawyer and Native Customary Rights(NCR) activist recently,with regards to native customary rights and this is what he had to say..........

Datuk Kong Hong Ming (left) today urged the State Government and Department of Lands & Surveys to give priority and act immediately to settle land ownership claimed by the natives of Sabah who are losing their ancestral land and land acquired by native customary rights (NCR) in stead of offering lip-service.

According to Kong, native customary right in the form of customary tenure, even without any document of title, confers a permanent heritable and transferable right over occupancy and use of land under our system of land law.

In his statement today, Kong disputed the statement of the Director of Lands & Surveys Sabah, Datuk Osman Jamal claiming that the State Government and Department of Lands & Surveys never neglected their duty to protect the rights and privileges of the native community in terms of land ownership.

“His statement was misleading and did not reflect the predicament encountered by the native community in Sabah claiming for land ownership. On the contrary, what is really happening is that the natives of Sabah have been and are losing their ancestral land rapidly to the extent that many natives are now landless people, whether knowingly or otherwise” Kong responded.

Kong said, “Either the Director did not know the present predicament and plight of the native community in Sabah or he intended to mislead the people and the BN political leaders in believing that all is well insofar as the land rights and ownership of the Sabah natives are concerned.”

“To understand the dire situation faced by the natives in Sabah in respect of their appeals for help due to encroachment and loss of ownership in land, the Director could verify with the State Attorney General Chambers and all District Land Offices where there are a large numbers of court cases and land disputes outstanding and accumulating.” Kong said.

“If the BN State Government and its leaders respect and protect the land rights and ownership of the indigenous people of Sabah, the State Government especially the Chief Minister as minister in charge should have the political will and immediately direct the Department of Lands & Surveys to conduct the settlement exercise to identify and settle all NCR lands in the State by issuing individual and communal land titles as provided in the Sabah Land Ordinance.” Kong suggested.

“The fact that the State Government and Lands & Surveys Department had now given a speedy approval letter for the land alienated for the Mazu statue and temple speaks for itself since it was only made possible by personal intervention by Sabah Chief Minister (right) himself in the unusual circumstances.” Kong said.

Kong disclosed, “The promising picture painted by the Director was merely a good public relation exercise by the Director which did not reflect the real sentiment of the natives of Sabah who are helplessly suffering from the massive loss of their ancestral land due to indiscriminate alienation of huge acreages of land by the Chief Minister Department and Lands & Surveys Department to many large corporations including government agencies, which subsequently entered into joint ventures with private corporations.”

“The painful truth is that the Sabah natives have been crying out loud for the past 10 years for the massive loss of their ancestral land and land acquired by native customary rights (NCR) which were continuously encroached, destroyed and taken away from them through alienations by the State Government.” Kong said

Kong said “The indigenous people of Sabah (left) had voiced out their plight and frustration to the State Government in many occasions. But their voices were never heard or respected.”

“Sometime in 2006 and again in February 2008, not less than 32,352 natives from 18 districts of Sabah had voiced out their grievances and came out appealing to the government to respect, defend and protect against encroachment of their ancestral land for a collective area of 339,984 acres in 18 kampungs in the State. More than 100 representatives from 18 districts led by Galus Ahtoi of PACOS (Partners of Community Organization) gathered at Kota Kinabalu and jointly submitted a memorandum to the Head of State of Sabah, Sabah chief minister, Suhakam, State Secretary, State Attorney General and the Director of Lands & Surveys himself.” Kong said.

“Despite their protests and appeals, nothing was done by the State Government in taking step to preserve, protect and respect their land rights and ownership. On the contrary, huge acreages of state land to the extent of 20,000 acres to 60,000 hectares per land title were alienated to powerful corporations without any due consideration to the existing rights in of the natives’ ancestral land and NCR land that they and their forefathers have occupied and cultivated for generations.”

“One of the major causes for the massive losses of ancestral land rightfully belonging to the natives was due to the excessive time-consuming process practiced by Lands & Surveys Department between land application and issuance of land title. In many cases, it could take as long as more than 30 years and still waiting. Another major cause of concerned is that natives have to compete with big corporations for land due to heavy demands for agricultural land for oil palm plantations. Due to the lack of financial resources, natives always lose out and give up at the end.” Kong said.

“Over the years, it is generally perceived by ordinary citizens especially natives of the remote villages that the State has been more readily to alienate large acreages of land to selected individuals or corporations whose primary or sole objective is out to amass land for wealth accumulation rather than for basic need or livelihood. At the same time, land applications and alienation can be such a complex procedure and lengthy process for natives who are in dire need of small acreages of farmland to support their basic livelihood and survival. It is rather common in Sabah that natives have been waiting for more than 30 years for document of title to the land that they applied. One of those many cases is the natives in Tongod of Kinabatangan.” Kong said.

“Some 24,000 acres were alienated to a company in 1998 in a single land application submitted in 1997 whereas Tongod natives had applied much earlier for 5 to 15 acres per family since 1975 and have been there as a village community comprising of 12 kampungs for not less than 7 generations. They and their forefathers were owners of the land by adat or custom long before the British Chartered Company or at least well before the formation of any state government. The State Government through Lands & Surveys Department in one single approval took away their land without any due regard to the people’s existing rights and their livelihood and survival.” Kong said.

“Never ignore the fact that natives of Sabah were often the victims of uncontrolled logging activities and indiscriminate land development schemes including by Government land agencies. Public officials so often seized opportunity to limit, delay, disregard and reject claims by native community based on NCR or their land applications submitted earlier in time but instead to facilitate by giving preferential treatments to applications later in time to selected powerful individuals and corporations.

“Depriving customary land of the natives can be construed as depriving their livelihood, which is unconstitutional in violation of Article 5 of the Federal Constitution that guarantees that no person shall be deprived of his life which includes the rights to livelihood except in accordance with law. Further, the taking away or extinguishments of customary land from native or alienation of customary land without compensation was discriminatory, unfair and unconstitutional thereby violated Article 8 of the Federal Constitution that guarantees equality before the law. Moreover, the taking away or extinguishments of customary land from natives or the alienation of customary land without compensation was unconstitutional on the ground that it is in violation of Article 13 which guarantees that no person shall be deprived of his property without adequate compensation and save according to law.

“The State and its administrators have a general fiduciary and constitutional obligation to protect the welfare of the natives and a specific obligation to protect and preserve the native customary and proprietary rights in land. In the premises, they must act for the benefits of the said native community as the beneficiaries. Any deprivation of customary land belonging to the native communities and their future generations is to deprive them of their sources of food, water, rivers, medicines, wildlife, other forest produce which the said native communities need and are dependant upon for their livelihood and daily sustenance.

“Now by his own admission, the Director has finally conceded after all these years that his Department and State Government are incapable of handling the many land applications submitted by natives with some 265,000 remaining outstanding, which is very alarming as the backlogs have accumulated since 1975 until now and continuing.

“Based on their working capacity of 16,000 applications per year, the future and prospect of obtaining native land rights and ownership is indeed very bleak for the Sabah natives.

“Street demonstration is never our culture, especially for Sabah indigenous people. The native community in Sabah clearly has a legitimate claim against the State Government for neglects and breach of duty in defending protecting and preserving the rights and interests of the native community in Sabah” Kong said.

“The natives of Sabah are running out of time. It is now or never. In reality, the natives are not only demanding respect for their land rights and ownership of property which were legally belonging to them, they are in fact preserving, defending and protecting their livelihood, survival as well as culture, tradition and custom.” Kong said.

Military Invasion Of The Highest Order!

The sovereignty of Sabah is being dangerously compromised with the involvement of the Armed forces in politics. In my last posting,Malaysia,a police state in the making?,I mentioned that it’s ashamed that the present regime has mobilized and abused all the public-funded institutions in this country whose fundamental roles and responsibilities are to safeguard the nation and the people’s interest.

The intrusion of fully armed army personnel in demanding a villager Datu Pengiran Ahmad Datu Ali Alam,who is a member of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) to take down the party flag which he proudly hoisted in his house,simply because the Minister of Defence,Datuk Zahid Hamidi (below left) was making an "ops pasir" visit is not only tantamount to abuse of power but complete erosion and violation of his constitutional rights and freedom of association with the political party of his choice.

It has also been reliably learnt,that the police has forwarded the report made by Datu Pengiran Ahmad to the army for their further action.I was also informed by Datu Pengiran Ahmad that,he was also approached by a third party to withdraw his police report and negotiate the matter amicably.What was there to negotiate is absolutely mind-boggling.

I almost fell off my chair,upon hearing this,which to me is an effort to completely "cover-up" this entire episode and erase it from the face of the earth. This also further confirms my earlier post,that the said incident was a clear sign of immense fear of the present regime toward the opposition’s presence, and a desperate attempt to eliminate such fear or threat by suppressing the general masses’ show of support for the opposition.

I urge the Chief Minister of Sabah cum State Security Committee Chairman,Datuk Musa Aman (left),to refrain from being "confused" in his press statement that appeared in a local daily stating "DON'T FALL FOR BLOG TALK".The Chief Minister cannot be that ignorant,on the facts and events that took place in Semporna.The army must come clean and respond to their actions.

In a magnanimous stand,Supreme council member,Hj.Ansari Abdullah (below) and the state leadership of Parti Keadilan Rakyat(PKR) of Sabah called for the armed forces to keep out of the political realm of the country,at a press conference.The video clip on the press conference is presented to you here.

Malaysia, a police state in the making?

My dear fellow Malaysians and Sabahans, I’m writing this latest posting with an extremely heavy heart. This is because our beloved country is fast becoming a police state, if not one yet.

Before I present you with the evidence to substantiate my claim, let me give you the definition of a police state.

According to Wikipedia, the term police state describes a state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the population. A police state typically exhibits elements of totalitarianism and social control, and there is usually little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive.

The inhabitants of a police state experience restrictions on their mobility, and on their freedom to express or communicate political or other views, which are subject to police monitoring or enforcement. Political control may be exerted by means of a secret police force which operates outside the boundaries normally imposed by a constitutional state.

Now, here’s the evidence of my claim. One month ago, on 3 August,army personnel's from the 7 RAMD (Gerak Khas) swooped on Pulau Pandanan Kecil, off Semporna and ordered the villagers there to take down all the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) flags hoisted at their houses. When the villagers declined to comply, the army personnel's brought the flags down for them.

When confronted by a disgruntled villager on who ordered them to do so, the army personnel replied that it was an instruction from their ‘boss’, without giving any name. But, I guess one does not have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out who the ‘boss’ is..

Outraged by the incident, one of the villagers later lodged a police report at the Semporna district police station. The outrageous episode was videoed and photographed by a courageous villager and sent to me. (click here to watch the video part 1) (click here to watch the video part 2)

The said incident was a clear sign of immense fear of the present regime toward the opposition’s presence, and a desperate attempt to eliminate such fear or threat by suppressing the general masses’ show of support for the opposition.

It’s ashamed that the present regime has mobilized and abused all the public-funded institutions in this country whose fundamental roles and responsibilities are to safeguard the nation and the people’s interest, to maintain their current positions, so that they can continue to siphon the wealth of this country to enrich themselves and their cronies.

But, let me say this, the present regime can go on to remove all the opposition flags that it comes across in the country, but it certainly cannot remove the ‘invisible’ one in the people’s heart.

This and the other dreadful and shameful incidents that had occurred in the country since the last general election and the internal fighting among the Barisan Nasional component parties like MCA, MIC, PPP could be a prelude to the downfall of the present regime.