Sabah secession idea too dangerous: Salleh
Sabah political leader says better to focus on the issues of illegal immigrants and Muslim extremist instead of breakup talk.
(Free Malaysia Today) – Sabahans should focus on the problems of illegal immigrants and on Islamisation and Muslim extremism instead of thinking about secession as a solution, says former chief minister Salleh Said Keruak.
He said that although Sabahans might have problems with Putrajaya, talk of secession and a separate republic was dangerous and irresponsible.
Even more dangerous was the way the Islam-Christian divide in Sabah (brought on by controversies over use of the word Allah and Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia) was being used as a reason for breaking away.
Calling out the dangers of parochialism, he gave as an example the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia, a federal republic, two decades ago when the Bosnian, Croat, Montenegrin and Serbian ethnic groups wanted to go their own ways.
The fact that the Islam-Christian divide is being cited as one of the reasons Sabah must consider leaving Malaysia makes this talk even more dangerous.
Nothing good can come out of such a solution and such talk will only heighten the tensions even further.
