Over the past year, Dr Jeffrey, through another platform — the United Borneo Front (UBF) — has been traversing the length and breadth of rural Sabah to spread his “Borneo agenda”, playing on a small but growing anti-Malaya sentiment to capture political power. Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore formed Malaysia in 1963 but Singapore was asked to leave two years later.
Clara Chooi, The Malaysia Insider
As elections loom, the “Sabah for Sabahans” war cry appears to be resounding louder than ever as the newly-formed Sabah Star joins an already crowded opposition battle for a state long considered a Barisan Nasional (BN) stronghold.
Led by Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, the now one-month-old Star, or “State Reform Party”, believes that it will be this very sentiment that will finally break the ruling pact’s chokehold on the east Malaysian state.
The 65-year-old political veteran, whose long and colourful career has seen him float in and out of at least six political parties, insists that this time, he has just the right brew for what he feels is a more enlightened Sabah electorate.
Over the past year, Dr Jeffrey, through another platform — the United Borneo Front (UBF) — has been traversing the length and breadth of rural Sabah to spread his “Borneo agenda”, playing on a small but growing anti-Malaya sentiment to capture political power. Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore formed Malaysia in 1963 but Singapore was asked to leave two years later.
He has hosted what he calls the “Borneo Tea Parties” in at least 400 locations state-wide, hoping that his symbolic use of the historic “Boston Tea Party” event will jolt a sense of patriotism within the electorate to fight for the state’s autonomy.
The Boston Tea Party was a significant event in America’s independence struggle when colonists boarded ships in Boston Harbour in 1773 and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water to protest against taxation by Britain.
“Like the colonists in America, we too want our rights back. We want to go back to the 1963 Malaysia agreement. We want to implement what has been agreed on ... the promises, the assurances,” Dr Jeffrey said.
“We want a fair share of roles in the federal government — we are one of the components that make up Malaysia, so we are supposed to share the role of managing the country.”
He noted that for any side to gain federal power in the coming polls — either BN or the opposition — much emphasis must be placed on capturing the hearts of east Malaysians, a factor he said would be used as a “bargaining chip” to achieve autonomy for Sabah.
Since the Malaysia agreement, Dr Jeffrey said, Sabahans have become “beggars” in their own homeland with the state long rated as the country’s poorest despite being rich in natural resources.
“Did you know that in terms of revenue, the state government only collects about RM3.6 billion? But that we are sending RM35 billion to the federal government every year?” he said.
He pointed to the growing influx of illegal immigrants in the state, a longstanding problem that will emerge as a key issue in the coming polls.
“This is one of the worst things the government has done just to maintain their power base ... they are actually destroying the state,” he said.
During his two-day working visit to Sabah last week, Datuk Seri Najib Razak did not announce the Cabinet’s decision to form a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to look into the problem of illegal immigrants in the state as had been expected.
Instead, the prime minister announced that Sabah has finally lifted itself from off the bottom rung and relegated PAS-led Kelantan to the status of the nation’s poorest state.
But to Dr Jeffrey, the state known as the Land Below the Wind still lags far behind its partners across the South China Sea.
He lamented the BN government’s focus on economic development, saying everything has always been about “peninsula, peninsula, peninsula”.
But all this could change, Dr Jeffrey believes, with enough groundwork.
Through his “Borneo Tea Parties”, the politician has been giving Sabahans lessons in history, buoyed by conviction in his belief that “knowledge is power”.
During each “tea party”, Dr Jeffrey said participants join in a three-step process — learning about Sabah’s history of independence and the formation of Malaysia; what has happened since the 1963 agreement and how to move forward; and a question and answer session.
