Category: Sabah

Congrats to Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) Deputy President Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah on his appointment as Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah and Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Vice President Datuk Liew Yun Fan as Minister for Youth and Sports..

I do not expect any thanks from the duo, although all Sabahans know that if not for my strong criticisms of the Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Aman during my three-day political tour of Tawau, Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan last weekend for leaving vacant the two posts relinquished by Tan Sri Chong Kah Keat and the marginalization of both the Chinese and the Kadazandusun Murut communities in Sabah Baru, both appointments would have remained shelved.

Although the Sabah State Secretary Datuk K. Y. Mustafa said yesterday that Musa had informed the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of the reshuffle on April 25 and he had agreed to the appointments, nobody would believe Mustapha’s statement.

If Mustapha was speaking the truth, then Musa has a blackmark in setting the worst record for any state government leader in having to take nine long days to implement such a decision, which would normally be announced on the very same day itself

Can Musa explain the reasons for such gross incompetence and ineptitude?

Mustafa was clearly trying to shield the Chief Minister and fend off my political criticisms of Musa on this issue, but it is not his job as the state’s No. 1 civil servant to be embroiled in the political waters.

Mustafa should zealously safeguard the independence, impartiality, professionalism and image of the state civil service and not compromise them by doing political yeoman service for his political master.

Mustafa should leave politics to the politicians and do a good job as a model civil servant in the state by demonstrating that as the No. 1 civil servant in Sabah, he fully understands the meaning of civil service independence, impartiality, integrity and non-partisanship and is guided by these principles in his every action and statement. Continue reading “Congrats and 3 immediate tasks for Raymond Tan as new Sabah DCM”

For 12 years from 1978 to 1990, Sandakan was represented by the DAP in Parliament and the people of Sandakan were in the political vanguard in the state and nation in the battle for justice, equality and democracy.

In the past 17 years from 1990 to 2007, the people of Sandakan withdrew from this front-line role for political change in Sabah and Malaysia.

Last year, the wind of political change blew strong and hard in Sarawak when six DAP representatives were elected into the Sarawak State Assembly, fundamentally altering the culture, quality and direction of Sarawak State Assembly proceedings and Sarawak politics.

Many are hoping that this “Sarawak wind of political change” will also blow in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah come the next general election, which is most likely at the end of this year or early next year after Barisan Nasional’s surprise result in the Ijok by-election in Selangor yesterday.

The time has come for the wind of political change to blow again in the “Land Below the Wind” as Sabah was known.

Earlier today, together with the Sarawak DAP Assemblywoman for Pending Violet Yong and Pahang DAP Assemblyman for Triang Leong Ngah Ngah, I visited the new Sandakan market which had been operating for four months.

It was a grandiose “white-elephant” which cost RM34 million or over 60 per cent cost overrun from the original estimate of RM21 million — an outstanding symbol of the lack of municipal good governance in Sandakan and Sabah as well as the lack of accountability, integrity and effective democratic representation.

The cries of the majority of the stallholders in the new Sandakan market that they are sandwiched between high rentals and poor business as a result of bad siting, lack of supportive infrastructure like proper bus service and sub-standard construction despite exorbitant construction costs, had been totally ignored by all the three tiers of government – local, state and national.

The Sabah State Assembly had just concluded its meeting last week but nobody raised the scandal of the RM34 million new Sandakan market in the Sabah State Assembly. Continue reading “Curses of 2Cs and 2Is in Sandakan and Sabah”

Sabah is in the throes of a political crisis although it is publicly
denied by the Umno and Barisan Nasional leadership, whether state or national.

There is for instance a lot of play-acting over the shock abrupt resignation of Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat as Sabah Deputy Chief Minister and State Tourism Minister on Friday, with the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi fully endorsing the Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Musa Aman, in saying that Chong’s resignation was “not really a loss” because it would not weaken the Barisan Nasional state government.

In other words, although Chong was Deputy Chief Minister and one of the key digits in the in the conspiracy and strategy to establish Umno hegemony in Sabah in the early nineties, he is now completely irrelevant and expendable.

It is no surprise therefore that Chong had expressed his “hurt” at the Prime Minister’s dismissive comments about his resignation, telling Oriental Daily News today that the Prime Minister’s comment had wounded his dignity and offended the people of Sabah and the Chinese.

Kah Kiat had maintained that he was quitting the Sabah Cabinet “as a matter of principle” — implying basic and fundamental differences with the Sabah Chief Minister.

The media have reported that ties have been strained between the chief minister and his deputy for some time over numerous issues like Musa’s plans to develop Pulau Sipadan island off Sabah’s east coast, with Malaysiakini citing as ” the final straw” their differences over Chong’s proposal to build a huge statue of the Goddess of Mercy in Kudat as a tourist attraction.

It is clear however to astute political observers that Chong’s resignation is only the tip of the iceberg of what is politically wrong and even rotten in Sabah after Umno’s entry in Sabah and 13 years of Umno and Barisan Nasional control of the Sabah State Government and that the issues at stake are even bigger than Chong’s differences over “principle” with Musa.

What is the cause of the Sabah malaise and crisis? Umno has successfully made its foray into Sabah and established its unquestioned political hegemony in the state in less than a decade, but in the process, it has broken every pledge it had made on entry into Sabah. Continue reading “KDM the new underclass in Umno’s Sabah Baru”