PM wants views

By Kadayan Monitor

If I were to have any faith in our Sabah’s leaders that will say what they have said they will to Abdullah Badawi- the Prime Minister, when they meet, it must only be very few of them.

First in my list that I would like to believe are Masidi Manjun, who is also Sabah UMNO Deputy Secretary and Bernard Dompok, President of UPKO, this is off hand, I have to sit down nicely to think of another names.

Bernard Dompok did munch a few words in the past but perhaps coming from small component of BN, his voice was easily brushed aside, a kind of do as you like response.

So I come back to Masidi because he has already said something the last few days that Sabah is unfairly treated, he said.

How and what to say in front of Abdullah the PM?

Well, may be he needs to be given a background in case he forgets, depends on what time of the day the meeting is taking place.

The background is something like this first; say, Sabah has contributed and sacrificed quite substantially, both in the economy and political front of the nation, more so now Sabah can be considered as an anchor to BN survival.

Sabah performed exceptionally well in the last GE, lost only one MP and one ADUN to opposition, many have guessed differently-luckily it was wrong guessed, Sabah people in the past were quite naughty. With that, I think PM must take cognition very seriously if he wants to be remembered before he says sayonara!

It isn’t just about ministerial posts.

If Sabah BN were to repeat its performance next time round, perhaps worth reminding him Sabah deserves to be given other national post in Public Sectors and convince him to approve be approved within the shortest possible time, and don’t wait for too long, in case next time round is just around the corner, or this time sailing is no longer a smooth sailing as in the past.

Don’t forget before PM picks anyone for ministerial posts from those remaining MPs, he must be reminded to ask from those in the know, because in time like this everyone (the eager ones) would look innocent and sulky.

Don’t just pick base on paper qualification, and also don’t pick the guys that produced nothing, especially if they have been as YBs for the past few terms.

One more thing, pick from those who can speak English or may be if they can write as well, otherwise they would never understand what people wrote in the internet.

Say to PM it wasn’t the internet the caused of BN down fall in the five States, it’s the voters.

Last but not the least we must know, in Australia people speak English and don’t bring so much cash to avoid answering questions in English.

Who 's next?

Is he or is he not?

Politics is about connection, here is the connection and another...

Rumours are flying back and forth that another Federal minister may quit his post soon.

One will ask how true is it? Well, its rumours, but in our experience a 'not true' statement is always the other way around.

These few days can either mean so much or nothing for politicians, that's how I view it anyway.

Because now is an acceptable period of denial, as truth is yet to be proven.

This is not really like a story who moves my cheese but rather its everyone interests to make a move but whose moves is credible enough to crack the wall? Otherwise one will be left alone in the cold or even in the drain. That depends on what kind of a leader one is.

Yesterday, was the truth, MP for Kalabakan, Ghapur Salleh, tendered his resignation citing "I want to do my own things” as his reason.

Strange! After taking his oath as Federal Deputy Minister, he suddenly remembered that he needed to visit his many children who are overseas studying.

We understand a politician's job is very stressful, hope he is not senile before his time.

Our friend, I-Spy, tells us many of our political warlords are in Melbourne, Australia, currently.

They must be visiting their children who are studying there.

Very thoughtful of them despite their busy schedules.

I-Spy also tells us that the minister in question is from Sabah.

Do we have a name here? Be patient for the announcement.

Sabah boleh, bah...

New Prime Minister?

Lim says soon we have new Prime Minister

As of now 36 MPs from Sabah and Sarawak are willing to jump to Opposition, no kidding!

That is the number requires turning country's political scenario upside down. For Opposition Coalition to form a government now , it only needs 30, not counting the willing MPs from Peninsula yet.

If the calculation is right 16 MPs from Sabah and 20 MPs from Sarawak are already rehearsing their mind on what to expect sailing in uncharted waters. I am sure this is going to be a long-long day for politicians.

For Sabah, what I can say at the moment is to include senior Minister.

Lim Guan Eng said, soon we will see our Prime Minister Datuk Anwar Ibrahim. Who doesn’t believe him? The number of MP gathered now is attainable. It is just a matter of timing!

The timing must be after 14^th of April.

I could only be suspicious if the date falls on 1st of April, but this one is way passed the fool day.

We need no clairvoyant.

Because it is so intense, every YBs is tight lips, everybody is not saying anything. I am too not going to write more in order not to loss the luster of being suspense.

"As a Sabahan, I do feel that Sabah deserves better representation (in the federal cabinet) and that the ministers from Sabah should also be given (appropriate) portfolios. I believe this needs to be looked at,"
Sabah Umno secretary Datuk Masidi Manjun

How far to go...

By Kadayan Monitor

All political happenings these days are in Peninsula Malaysia, nothing is heard from Borneo Malaysia. But everyone knows BN anchored solidly in these two states, make no mistake (Sabah UMNO second only Johore) - saying it politically. The rest God knows.

Oops! Comes the news, I was informed last night but I didn’t bother to write otherwise this blog would be the first to highlight.

BN (UMNO) is cracking, Datuk Abd Ghapur; MP for Kalabakan, Tawau has resigned from his post Deputy Minister Portfolio, while earlier on Anifah Aman declined the offer of another Deputy Minister post.

Why? May be they already have enough jobs.

About this treatment by Federal Leaders towards Borneo Malaysia States that what I would like to stress, I was just posting this topic to somewhere last night highlighting of how badly are Borneo Malaysia treated by the current government, or I can even called it unfriendly Federal leaders, especially when talking about the immense contributions and sacrifices from and by Sabah and Sarawak for the sake of national development.

Now, just watch on the distribution of Federal ministerial posts. Aha … no wonder the two Sabahans, one resigned and other declined the offer, you read what I mean?

Now let me say this- this is exactly what people (Sabahans) on the ground are saying. I think if that is what people want the leaders to do, they (leaders) should take cognition, after all under the pretext of that that they were elected now become YB.

Are Sabah YBs worried the PM will murka you’ll get sacked from UMNO or BN membership and marked black dot on the foreheads?

What I said above is actually what people on the ground are saying, I am just conveying it. You don’t believe what I say, go the Gaya Street Tamu on Sunday, look around for kedai kopi, I am sure you will meet the like minded people I talked to you about

Sabah is so being lenient, revenue contribution from oil in return for peanut, if it doesn’t sound fair what do we do, keep waiting until it dried out.

That is why many Sabahans want opposition to win. But Sabahan are betrayed by their leaders. Sabah opposition leaders only know how to count chicks long before they even hatched or another saying is angan-agan Mat Jinin will fall down headlong.

Another Sabahans problem is because the party representative’s chief like UMNO is appointed not elected. UNMO should change its constitution in order to allow the Chief of Sabah’s UMNO be elected by members that would be more people oriented to avoid this hand picking.

Hand packed leader wouldn’t produce anything new but bodek at the highest level.

Rocky Malaysia

By Kadayan Monitor

A professor asked me this afternoon of what I think about the current political situation in the country. But just before I was about to give the answer he gave me his.

I thought of not answering at all, but I did.

The aftermath of the country’s 12^th General Election which resulted BN ever biggest disaster is here to stay and to be felt, according to the Professor.

“I don’t think the Government Ministers and the YBs feel comfortable sitting on their chairs, I think anything can happen these days” he said.

I concurred with him.

On my part, I’d better believe my instinct.

Let me say this, talk all over the place, high and low about the country is having leadership crisis- this is general public impression surely this view is different from the cabinet’s or even the new YBs' who are just voted in.

You see a few days ago, there was a little hope, that is, before the members of cabinet were announced. In other words, people were hoping that new line up of leaders would be able to rescue and restore the image it had (BN), therefore, expected leaders retained and promoted and newly appointed are those with credible oomph.

But it fell short, it became a sort of anti climax, just as what the PM did in his 2004 cabinet reshuffled.

Now reading from people's reactions I met on the street. (Don't ask me how I read it? I just followed my instinct)

People's hope dashed, moment they knew the line up. Many asked who was or who were advising PM?

Now I have another imagination, it looks people have more faith in the appointment of Menteri Besar and their Exco members in the five States controlled are by the Opposition than those controlled by the winner, BN.

Can we not think and imagine again, the difficulty in choosing MB in the two states controlled by BN Government- Parlis and Trengganu.

The cardinal mistake is repeated again here. Rakyat want someone of their own choice to become the MB, someone who they think can lead the country to prosper not to bankruptcy.

There was a collision between the people's choice and the choice of the institutionalised political leaders.

Just ponder for a moment, whose choice is correct, the rakyat or the leaders?

Well, since that Professor wants to know my view, and my view is this, the cabinet minister line up doesn't look credible enough to change the image of rotten BN.

That PM should resign.

Appointing Ministers from back door when there isn't a need because others are available from front door, this wouldn’t support the logic on the question of trimming the number of cabinet for the purpose of reducing cost.

Big mistake, Sabah and Sarawak the anchor of BN survival deserved to be given intention – any one noticed? Most Government Ministers are from Johore. Johore probably didn't ask for it, but wise decision usually comes from wise person only.

Attention to opposition political parties, BN is going to be the next opposition party, after the next General Election so long as you people play your card right, walk the talk, learn quickly and don't be crazy; you are heading in a right direction. Good Luck.

Yours Truly,
BN loyalist

There was a tsunami in Peninsular Malaysia; this is what everyone called, referring to the result of our country’s 12th General Election last week.

But that tsunami didn’t reach the shore of Borneo Malaysia-Sabah and Sarawak.

Many have asked me why?

Surely question like this needs answer, and what I do here is just to highlight the obvious as I see it.

Before I dwell into it, let me first say this, there are disparities between the two lands.

The obvious one is physical geography; second, there was a kind of information black out in Sabah. There people not knowing what happening in Peninsula, and third, the opposition leaders in Sabah are inward looking or even crazy.

That physical distance between Borneo Island and Malay Peninsula is something no one can change it, a distance of more than a thousand miles apart. It can only be made closer with the application of new communication technology in which so far Sabah and Sarawak are still lag behind partly because of their sheer sizes.

Longer distance makes contact slower, massages distorted and becoming less reliable by the time it’s finally reaches its final destination; it also involves cost, which only a few can afford.

Compare with country’s scenario in the past 40 years ago though, today we are better off but likewise, the phase of development (referring to communication technology) is slower by any standard of developed countries. The question is if we could do faster why do we have to wait?

My friend who is an experts in information technology said to me, the stake holders in Malaysia Telekom wouldn’t jump for any new idea, for example, changing the current circuit switch system to packet switch technology, and in as far as Telekom Malaysia is concerned they would say it damned expensive to change to new system. In actual fact is not the real reason, but rather they fear of loosing grip with the present vendor locking system, For example Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung and named it wouldn’t be playing a major role again in Malaysia Telekom should the packet switch system is used. Likewise the present stake holders may not have a chance to make money any more in a selfish way I called.

According to experts the packet switch system is far greater capacity than Malaysia present system, and in a long run it cost far less because other neighbouring countries can also hire from us should we now start with it.

This where Sabah and Sarawak are at a disadvantage, take for example in Sabah, say in Long Pa Sia - somewhere southern most of Sipitang District near to the border between Sabah in Kalimantan none of the present networking system works, whilst if we pick any kampong in Peninsula most likely it would be covered by at least one system.

Television for example like Astro, in Sabah only covered small portion of the state, the urban areas, whilst RTM1, 2, and TV3 are only slightly bigger coverage than Astro.

I would imagine if facilities are available to the people in Sabah, i.e., rural people are as informed as those people in Penang, Kedah, Perak and Selangor, rest assured that the result of this recent general election could be different.

In Sabah, most kampong folks didn’t know much what’s going on in the country. Their only source of information is RTM. Their ability to evaluate left, right and centre is therefore limited.

The only political party they hear every now and then is the BN, unfortunately BN party workers didn't realize their shock wave campaign style in many places (threatening and browbeating) rural people, do as told kind, old people living on receiving old age allowance were threatened , if they do not vote BN their old allowance would be withdrawn. The poor souls have little idea. But I reckon if they do this next time around, they will become opposition in Parliament.

Rural Sabahans are caught up between the devil and the deep blue sea, There isn’t choice.

To me, by looking at the result of the general election, there is no more denial now, that the internet media plays a major role in providing information- an alternative to printed media and TV.

This is because some Malaysians considered some of the program shown in our RTM was and is so revolting especially during the political campaign period. There isn't any fairness was shown to any other parties other than BN. The tone and the presentation was something like the world was coming to an end without BN.

My early thought about internet was rather misleading take the Ijok by-election as an example, as an internet addict, reading from thousands and thousands of material posted in the web page was clearly indicated that PKR candidate could win at that time. The result was upsetting, all prediction by major blogs was wrong.

This time around, general public refuse to budge and reinforce the belief, and ignore the Ijok debacle.

Here I say internet it also meant to cover, blogs, tubes, video, SMS, ipods, Yahoogroup and all sort of web pages.

Bloggers effortlessly continued their blogging, still, the most popular websites were Malaysiakini, Raja Petra-Malaysia Today and Harakah gave countdown, updated every hour and on the hour of what people want to hear as well as see.

It doesn’t mean UMNO and other BN component parties have no websites, except that their websites are duplicate to what is already found in main stream media, and people ignored them completely as they want to see and hear the opposite of the Government propaganda. Worst was when RTM the mouthpiece of the government non stop telling the obvious and grossly lying, making up exaggerating stories. The most pathetic ritual was about members from such and such political parties now joined BN, so on and so forth.

In Kelantan, because UMNO wanted so badly, there was a picture portraying the grand reception of welcoming members in a five star hotel spearheaded by Datuk Dr Awang Adek Menteri Besar designate. In another, just below was a small picture of Tok Guru praying in a mosque alone with background of shining white and light green tiles, it meant to say we are all small nothing is grandiose, that was melancholically enough to make one thinks which is morally right and morally wrong.

In Sabah there is this discrimination if not prejudices against younger generation. One can also called there is a generation gap between the older and younger generation, those whose age around 21 and below 30, were very much neglected, sidelined by older generation who claimed they have followers, which in actual fact not so, for them money matter most.

The young become thoughtless, they didn’t know what the fuss about in politics, so in Sabah BN was considered lucky so to speak, since opposition has not managed yet to convert them as in the five states won by the opposition.

The biggest hindrance for opposition of not winning more seats a part from one ADUN and one MP was that they lack of mutual aspiration. That means the PKR and DAP in Sabah unlike their counter part in Peninsula was not synchronized. When I asked Karpal Singh the DAP Chairman recently, he admitted that leaders in Sabah have not managed to iron out things in a cordial way.

Mind boggling, (Sabah’s opposition leaders) are these people really struggling for the people or purely for self interest?

From now if opposition leaders are truly patriotic and want to make Malaysia truly practices democratic government, I would think leaders at the top level must be prepared to give way and take stock comes a defining moment.

It is quite clear now in Sabah; independent candidates are people’s last choice, some would rather go to tabasan-mending their sawah padi than voting a bunch of idiots. This was seen as performed by Sabah local based political parties like PASOK and SETIA none of them pulled thousand votes. I could sum up; Sabahans themselves have no faith on them.

Padan Muka !

Serve You Right !

By Awang Buntak

When I got up Sunday after staying up whole night watching the election results, the Malay expression "Padan Muka"(Serve You Right) kept playing in my head.

You use this expression to show your disappointment with someone. It's like telling someone don't climb the tree, despite the good advice, the person still refuses to listen and if he falls from the tree later, you say "padan muka".

With the changed political landscape, who do you think I am going to say "padan muka" to? UMNO led Barisan? You think I should?

I don't think so; everybody is saying that throughout the country. So, why repeat myself?

I will shoot straight now; I’ll say "padan muka" to Sabah opposition parties. They had the chance to win some good seats in the just concluded elections; they ended up winning only one state seat and one parliament seat.

Our opposition politicians are really greedy, immature and a bunch of selfish nitwits. If they had sacrificed their egos for the sake of the people, can you imagine the political scenario of the country now?

Look at some of the urban seats; if you add up the opposition votes, they definitely whacked the BN winners. It does not take a genius to figure out that if the opposition votes get split, BN will win.

Even in some seats the BN winners just scrapped by. People in Sabah wanted change like other parts of the country, they wanted to wake up the arrogant government who never listened to them, they wanted to get rid of the illegal, they wanted better security, the people wanted corruption curbed, and they wanted their fair share of economic pie instead of it going to the well connected only.

They screamed loud and clear , we are all Malaysians, please help deserving cases regardless of their racial background, prices are going up, we are suffering they moaned. They wanted all these and more and what did the opposition do? They blew the chance away by being selfish and plain stupid.

From now in Sabah we need to stop complaining about illegal, corruption, nepotism, and cronyism, arrogance of power, the poor delivery system and all that. We'd better switch off and watch the new season of Akademi Fantasia.

I personally don't want to know about all the political stuff anymore.

Padan muka.

Ya la aku pun…I don’t know what are these people up to? They said they wanted to change the government. If it’s the case, then they should look at himself first in the mirror. No mantras require. But he may say this aloud.

By myself can I do it?

Someone can do it? Or

By combining the efforts we can make it… which is which?

No la these people are gila kuasa