Some Sabahans with secession on their minds

Parties trying push for the secession of Sabah and Sarawak from Malaysia can be punished “severely” for promoting anarchy, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said today.

The acting Umno deputy president warned any parties promoting slogans like “Sabah for Sabah” and “Sarawak for Sarawakians” as it runs counter to the Federal Constitution and is punishable by law.

“The action of some who seditiously incite the people with the slogans ‘Sabah for Sabah’ and ‘Sarawak for Sarawak’ is against the spirit of the Federal Constitution.

“It is this playing with fire that may lead to anarchy and national instability. Let us not reach the point where we suffer due to the intervention of foreign ploys and incitement,” Zahid said during his speech addressing Umno delegates tonight.

My several Uncles and their mateys would be very sad to learn that some Sabahans want to secede from Malaysia when many Peninsular Malaysians had sacrificed so much to protect them from an aggressive hungry Indonesia and a rapacious Philippines in the early 60’s. Some Peninsular Malaysians even made the ultimate sacrifice.

Many younger Malaysians whether from Sabah or Peninsular do not know the pain and sacrifices of their nation’s historical formation when we had to face an ugly Sukarno and his Konfrontasi, and Macapagal and his claim on North Borneo, thus we shouldn’t be surprised by their (younger Malaysians’) lack of allegiance to Malaysia.

In the 20-point Agreement which Sabah (then as North Borneo) proposed for its incorporation into the then-new Constitution of Malaysia, some of those points were included to varying degrees while others others were merely accepted orally, thus not having any legal status.

In other words, not all 20 points were legally legislated or incorporated into the Constitution.

However, Point 7 of the 20-point Agreement states there should be no right to secede from the Federation.

Because fo Point 7, Dr Jeniri Amir from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) stated that Sarawak and Sabah has no right to secede from the federation.

However, a separatist group led by Doris Jones (of Sabah) argued that the meaning of the word “should” as in “There should be no right to secede from the Federation” is only a recommendation as opposed to “shall” which implies a command.

Thus Sabah has a right to ignore a recommendation, wakakaka.

Borneo rights activist Doris Jones, 48, heads the Sabah Sarawak Union UK, and was of course UK-based. Like Waythamoorthy, when one was UK-based, one could be more daring and politically assertive, like suing the UK government for trillions of sterling pounds, wakakaka again.