KENINGAU (Sabah Malaysia):
The ultimate objective of State Reform Party (STAR) is nothing less than to
bring the people of Sabah up to the global stage.
Its Sabah Chief, Datuk dr. Jeffrey Kitingan
said in an interview here that even the national-level politics and
socio-economic progress is only one of the first stages for the people’s
development because ultimately they have to adjust to the higher challenges of
the new globalised age.
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| Bring Sabah’s development to global level – Jeffrey |
“If we are truly independent, then we have
to see ourselves eventually as a multinational or global players, and not just
localized participants in the new age,” he said. “This is especially so because
the people’s overall level of thinking has changed a lot and they are no longer
looking at the people of Peninsular as their role models. They want more. They
are looking at the global progress as their benchmark for progress in many
fields.”
“In fact, if we look closely in many fields,
the progress of Sabahans is actually higher than those achieved by Peninsular
Malaysians,” he pointed out. “As an example, the level of usage of the national
language is much higher in Sabah and the degree of interracial and
interreligious unity is very much stronger in Sabah and Sarawak.”
“In fact I believe Sabahans can adapt better
to global situations better than many people in the Peninsular who are held
back by their narrow cross-cultural outlook,” he added. “Don’t forget, over
there most Muslims cannot eat at the same tables with Chinese while in Sabah
this is a very common feature of society.”
He said Sabahans on the other hand are held
back by lack of facilities due to lack of infrastructures, and that Sabahans
would have been a lot better off by now had all the guarantees in the 20 Points
been fulfilled.
“Sabah has a lot of natural resources, but
these gifts are being shared with the other 12 states, to the point that Sabah
has become the poorest state in Malaysia,” he said. “This is gross injustice.
As such the people of Sabah should no longer tolerate it. They must leave
behind their half a century 0f patience and move on because Kuala Lumpur will
never give what it promised unless we change the government.”
Jeffrey believes that what Kuala Lumpur has
been announcing with a lot of slogans will never become reality, and his many
years of being in politics have convinced him that most of what the Federal
Government promises will never be kept.
“If we really want to progress, we need
first to change our stance in Sabah and Sarawak by going for the Borneo Agenda,
deal with the Federal Government to listen to our demands and then move on to
the global stage to develop Sabah,” he said. “We don’t have to wait for the
Federal Government to dictate to us, or plan our development for us.”
He said this is because the Federal
Government can be a great hindrance to progress because of biased policies, as
shown by the perpetuation of the repressive cabotage policy and the restriction
of direct international flights to Sabah, as well as the recurring statements
from federal leaders to create fears and worry. “As such, STAR is committed to
creating a new paradigm for Sabah to be economically independent with its own direct
networking with global trading partners.”
In response to the statement by Keningau
Umno Youth Chief, Azman Ruslan, who said that STAR was promoting narrow
regionalism in its politics, Jeffrey said that STAR is sensationalizing the
Borneo Agenda to fight Umno’s colonialistic policies.
“Borneo Agenda’s struggle for the rights and
autonomy of Sabah and Sarawak is getting tremendous support from the people
because they know this is what they want and this is what they have lost in
Malaysia,” he said. “Umno can go ahead and try to colonize the minds and
economy of Sabahans but this tactic is already outdated and is being rejected
by the people because they now know they have a better choice.”.
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