Sabah and Sarawak have been victims of Umno-Barisan Nasional's gross malpractices, writes a political observer.
The only way people in Sabah and Sarawak can see the truth of their respective history revealed is if they vote in Pakatan Rakyat in the 13th general election.
This country is thriving on gross malpractices, so much so that these practices have now established themselves as the norm in the Malaysian system of governance.
Sabah and Sarawak are victims of this gross malpractices.
A change of government will enable investigations into these gross malpractices committed by the Umno-BN federal government and their allies in Sabah and Sarawak from as far back as the late 1970s when Hussein Onn, a clean and honest leader, was the prime minister and Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the author of the infamous “Malay Dilemma”, was his deputy.
An elected Pakatan government would then be able to focus its investigations on:
(1) The original oil agreement which gave Sabah and Sarawak 20% royalty.
For the record Mahathir was the deputy prime minister at the time and in Sabah, Harris Salleh was then Sabah deputy chief minister.
Many believe that Mahathir was only interested in the money flowing from Sarawak and Sabah to the federal coffers. He did not want to see Sarawak and Sabah strong economically.
(2) The “Double Six” tragedy.
On June 6, 1976, 11 people were killed including chief minister Fuad Stephens and several state cabinet ministers in an air crash at the Kota Kinabalu Airport.
There is a belief that Mahathir, the main conspirator, and Harris planned to sabotage the original oil sharing agreement by eliminating the Sabah cabinet ministers who supported the 20% oil royalty,.
With them gone, Mahathir and Harris could forge a new agreement to give Sabah its share similar to that of Sarawak – a mere 5% oil royalty.
In a quick succession of events following the plane crash, Harris was immediately appointed Sabah chief minister the same afternoon.
The move enabled him to handle the case immediately or rather suppress the “truth” before it could get out of control.
This is reason enough for the rakyat of Sabah to vote for a Pakatan government to enable them to haul up the mastermind behind the whole thing.
(3) To protect Sabah and Sarawak’s natural resources.
A Pakatan government could ensure the wealth from the resources of Sarawak and Sabah are not taken by the federal government unfairly .
I believe this issue can be turned into a core campaign issue that determines which coalition will the peoples of the two states choose.
