A self  styled civil movement copied from the American Tea  Party experience;  promoted properly, it has the potential to be the next big thing if the Borneo states can catch on to the idea.

Instead of moaning and groaning,we must say loud and clear enough is enough, and give what is due to us.

Can this vision grow?

While I remain sceptical,  but somewhere, there is hope yet for those who are fed up with the current self serving actors from both sides of our political divide, which has always been Malaya centric.

Here is a Borneo formula to be thrown into  the mix which may bring general good to the country. Will it work?

Only time will tell.

UBF is  about  bringing  a more balanced political landscape by demanding the central government to honour the Malaysian Agreement. Instead  of dominating  the two Borneo states,  it is time to  be talking about creating a more equitable Malaysia for all citizens.

To me, I have never liked the economic disparities between the two wings of the country, it looks like they are well off with their motorways, Petronas Towers  and so on at our expense.

Goods are more expensive in Borneo states because of the cabotage policy; where all ships must call at Port Klang, hence, our higher cost of living.

Dr. Jeffery has described these policies  as a  form of internal colonialism.

To me, UBF is an idea whose time has come.

The highest achievement is, of course, the election of Shafie Apdal as one of the three vice presidents of the party and also the election of Rosnah Shirlin to head  the Puteri Wing. Many commended her for winning without resorting to money politics. She came through with only six votes.

We must praise them all, for anything achieved at the national level is a source of pride to all Sabahans.

Now, the question is will Sabah be more of “Malaya” insofar as UMNO politics is concerned? Can Sabah UMNO leaders remain true to their Sabahan roots? Can they maintain their liberal, multi cultural outlook, instead of screaming the “Ketuanan Malayu” nonsense?

If we look at Shafie Apdal, at times he comes across more “Malaya” than the orang Malaya.This is to be expected as he needs to survive politically and he , therefore , plays the game understood by the majority.

It’s okay for him to play to the gallery when he is in Malaya, but, being a vice president of UMNO, how is he going to play his politics in Sabah? It’s not going to be easy for him, any perception of fighting for the interest of one particular group may well backfire in the local context here.

On one hand he must play the UMNO Malay card for his party members, but, and at the same time Sabah politics is a bit more complex than Malays vs non Malays as being played out in the peninsular.

To be successful in Sabah politics, you have to be inclusive, otherwise you might as well close shop. Sabahans are just natural democrats.

I just hope Shafie will remain true to his Sabahan roots and with his leverage in UMNO, hopefully his voice on Sabah matters will carry more weight, and we will get what’s due to us. And, he must work hard for UMNO to be seen as more inclusive and accomodating.

Even for helping UMNO to remain in power at the national level after the last general elections, we have not been rewarded properly.

As a result many of my friends are not too sanguine , they say Sabahan politicians have been selling state assets to Orang Malaya from way back. Even the notoriously “Sabah for Sabahans” party the PBS was the biggest culprit in this game, they sold assets like  the SFI, Tanjung Aru Resort Hotel  etc to KL based people.

With many Sabahans playing leading roles in UMNO at the national level, the chances of them trying to please their KL bosses and followers to show that they are pan Malaysians will be greater.

While  the idea of being a  Malaysian  is not a bad  idea, but, our politicians must remember many people in Sabah want to see a political two way trafffic taking place, instead of a one way traffic currently perceived with regards to who gets what in this country. Don’t just take, you must also give in a big way. In other words, fair play must be seen as a political reality in this country to   keep us from moaning  all the time.

For too long Sabahans have been screwed nice and proper by their own politicians.

I am living the life that I want.

I’ve had some of the best sex of my life.

These are some of the quotations attributed to maths prodigy, Sufiah Yusof , a Brit of Pakistani-Malay descent who has now become a prostitute.

Without sounding disrespectful to members of her family here, Sufiah’s mum is from Johore, many people have said that this story is a welcome reprieve from the  current political posturing and intrigues in the country.

Having gone to Oxford  to study Maths  at the age of 12, Sufiah was an instant celebrity. It wasn’t a smooth path for her though. At 15 she ran away from the university, her relationship with her family especially with her father was strained to the point of no return.

She didn’t want to have anything to do with them and was  later placed in foster care.

In between she  got married and divorced. Quite an experience for someone who was not allowed to have much of a childhood .

There will be many explanations for her fall from grace if you will. It’s so easy to blame  parents for being overambitious for their children.

Had she been allowed to have a normal life, maybe, she would have turned out differently.There was also the pressure to be a good Muslim from an early age by her parents when her father was not really a good example. He had been  jailed previously for fraud, and is currently inside for molesting young girls he tutored.

Sufiah is  highly intelligent, maybe, becoming a prostitute  is her way of  getting back at her father. Something is not right  somewhere. Is this her way of forgetting her pain?

Parents should allow their children freedom, let them find their own pace instead of forcing their own ambitions on them . With little room to breathe, they suffocate.

Parents mean well, poet Khalil Gibran said our children come through us  not from us and they have their own wings , after a while they fly wherever they want to. We can only guide them.

What’s absurd in this episode is the news that some UMNO ministers have been reported as saying that they wanted to help Sufiah.

She is an adult, and a Brit, how do they propose to help? The ministers will be better appreciated  if they help   our own people who are drug addicts, HIV   carriers and  sort out other social ills usually associated with Bumiputras in the country.

Sufiah doesn’t have your  typical Malaysian mind set, she is free in a free country. She does what she wants. Her parents can’t do anything about it,  can our UMNO ministers do any better ?

If there is any learning process here, UMNO ministers must learn to accept that people have their own mind. They can think for themselves. If you try to influence  and control people too much, there is a natural backlash like  what happened in the last elections.

People want to do their own thing, they don’t want to be dictated to. Let young people learn from their own mistakes, we, as adults have to learn to be more tolerant and more forgiving. Don’t think we have all the answers.

Listen, please, listen to others. It is good manners to do so.

On second thoughts, maybe, the ministers should go to UK after all, let’s see who influences who and who saves who.

-So, how?

-Politics? A bit boring lah. Everyone is an expert now..

- Boring? Many possible scenarios to think about what, interesting bah. It keeps you connected to everyone, everywhere. Strangers become friends now.

-True also. what else is happening?

- If you read the blogs, you know the country has undergone some kind of revolution without bloodshed…

-Huh! anything else in the blogs worth knowing?

-Ya, there is this campaign to boycott the mainstream media( MSM) and also companies connected to BN.

-Yea? Why are they doing that for?

-Some of the bloggers are saying the MSM are too biased and they have lost their credibility.

-Why boycott? Get the other side to buy over and see if they can be neutral in their spin.

-Also, you know the Sultan of Blogs, Raja Petra? In his latest posting he said he’d changed his Maxis phone number because the owner, Ananda Krishna ,gave the BN millions of ringgits for the elections. As a form of protest, Petra decided not to patronise Maxis anymore.

-Huh?

-Petra’s argument is that tycoons like Ananda condone corruption, arrogance of power of the BN government. So, boycott their companies lah..

-Wah, these people are really self righteous.They are blaming the BN side for being arrogant and all that, to me they are the same.They are getting carried away with their own self-importance, what is the difference? Think many people will want to cancel their ASTRO subscriptions?

-You’ve got a point there, bro.

-If their campaign is successful, you think the tycoons will suffer with their millions stashed away overseas? The little people who work in these companies will get hurt. I am sure lots of these people voted for the opposition bah. If these companies cannot pay their salaries, how are they going to feed their families?

-Ya lah, it’s always the small people who get hurt.

-What’s new? All these smart bloggers should be telling the opposition held state governments to get cracking, instead of trying to destroy people’s livelihood. You want to keep the economy going, right?

-What was Bill Clinton’s tag line? It’s the economy, stupid? Something like that…

-Ya bah, get to work and prove you can do better, everybody is watching. All this revenge business is a waste of time and counter productive. It’s just one big ego trip for some people. If the opposition state governments can deliver, Sabah will go that way too.It’s a matter of time, bah..

My hand phone rang and I didn’t hear the rest of the conversation.

Before the announcement of the new cabinet, I met an ex-colleague who was very upbeat of having a stronger Sabah representation at the federal level.

I told him not to be too confident.

So, despite contributing 55 seats (Sabah 24, Sarawak 30, Labuan 1) or 40% of the parliamentary seats Badawi only threw crumbs at us in terms of ministerial posts, to the extent one Sabahan minister has declined to serve in his cabinet.

That’s Badawi’s way of saying “Thank You” to us.

He has taken us for granted again, his misplaced arrogance is still there ,despite losing 5 states and the two thirds control of parliament. He thinks the mandate he has just received is still considered strong.He’s definitely in denial.

Is he yet to wake up from his sleep or what?

At the last count , Johore has the most senior posts in the cabinet despite contributing only 25 seats.

Of course some people are more equal than others.

If the coffee shop talk is to be believed, we will have a new Prime Minister soon as many East Malaysian MPs are willing to jump ship.

Boy, are the people upset!

I can’t even have a decent debate on this as people I talk to are just too emotional and angry about the whole thing.

Why is Mohd Mohd Taib “Mike Tyson” brought back into the cabinet despite being caught carrying millions of dollars in Australia? Where did he get the money from when he was only earning a few thousand ringgits per month as the Mentri Besar of Selangor then?

Shouldn’t someone from Sabah or Sarawak be given the ministerial post instead of being made deputies? The hard core poor are plentiful in the two Borneo states, isn’t Selangor a developed state already , so why is he made the Minister for Rural Development? He didn’t even win a seat!

Sabahans have been screaming about the illegals in their state for so long, why didn’t Badawi appoint somebody from the state to be the deputy minister of Home Affairs to look into the matter?

There are too many unanswered questions.

This guy Badawi is either a genius or a big time fool for forming a cabinet that tailors for his own political survival instead of the nation’s as seen from here.

You can’t blame him for trying, can you?

After decades of political predictability, this is the first time the country is entering into unchartered waters.This is good in terms of a maturing nation. A two-party system is something we all can look forward to.

Can we live with so much uncertainty, though?

The Malaysian political scenario is hard to read at the moment, anything can happen.

Within UMNO, there is so much unhapiness, Tengku Razaleigh has offered himself to stand against Badawi in the coming UMNO elections. But, UMNO feudal culture is such nobody will say anything loudly or openly. It’s still the “Yes Datuk “syndrome, but behind your back the kerises are out.

The Wanita UMNO is also going bonkers because their head has not been re-appointed as minister . The newly appointed Minister of Tourism is not considered a member of the movement. You talk about bitchiness!

There is also the big problem in Trengganu over the appointment of the Mentri Besar.

Then, you read Anwar Ibrahim was quoted as saying that his coalition is a government- in- waiting.

Is his coalition up to it?

What keeps them together is Anwar, as both PAS and DAP have nothing in common. PKR itself is very much a one man show. Maybe, they should thrash out things first. Come up with a common platform. Many sober people also argue not to rush where angels fear to tread. Let the opposition states prove that they know how to rule first.Then, we can decide later.

Many people also worry because America is currently going through some difficult times with her economy, which means we are going to be hit too.

Indeed,things are very uncertain for us.

We need a steady ship at this juncture,otherwise, everybody will hurt big.

Many of the bigwigs are not sleeping well these days, not even Badawi I am sure. Maybe,he doesn’t care as long as his position is safe. It looks that way, doesn’t it?

Will the country be more stable when he steps down? Many also argue he is simply not capable, too slow and all that.

Is there going to be a happy ending to all this?

Only Madam Zorra can tell us.

Even though they still won the elections, the powerful Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition that has been ruling the country since independence failed for the first time to secure a two- thirds majority in the 222 seat Parliament and on top of that they lost five peninsular states to the opposition.

I expected the opposition to win at least 60-65 seats in Parliament, instead they secured 82 seats ,well beyond everyone’s expectations. The BN ,managed to get only 49% of the popular votes in the peninsular, without the 54 seats contributed by Sabah and Sarawak, they would have been hard pressed to form a simple majority government.

Is Kuala Lumpur going to reward us for this blind loyalty? We have to wait and see. If they don’t, chances are Sabah will go to the other side in the next elections or maybe sooner than we think.

We have done it before, we’ll do it again.

Even in the just concluded elections, there were some pointers indicating this, the heavily Chinese populated areas in Sabah actually voted for the opposition. Simple arithmetic shows if the opposition had worked together,they would have won plenty in these areas, BN won because of the split votes.

And my own estimate indicates that about 40% of local Malay votes went to PKR. Remember PKR does not have good local leaders who can galvanise the voters, also the party does not have a strong political machinery in the state.

Friends told me if not for the postal votes, many BN winners would have been yesterday’s papers.

For the incumbents, they have to work harder for the next four to five years, if they think they are in it for the spoils, wait for the tsunami next time round.

Show the people you are there to serve them. If you think it’s business as usual, you’d better think twice, every one is watching for that one wrong move.

Many people think Badawi should resign for the debacle. Then, in UMNO feudal culture, their people don’t worry too much about accountability, or for that matter, nobody should ask any critical questions, they are trained like Pavlov’s dog to be grateful to their leaders.

I thought those days were over especially with the new political equation in the country!

Then, old habits die hard, many of our politicians are slow learners. Let’s shoot straight here, Badawi is now seen as a liability to the party and so is his son-in-law. Somebody in UMNO must be brave enough to tell him so, Mahathir did that to Tunku; otherwise UMNO will be consigned to the dustbin of history soon.

This election is less about race but more about issues like corruption, economic opportunities ,rising prices and crimes, arrogance of power et al that bug us all as citizens of the country. We are in the same boat, don’t divide and rule us. Fair is fair. the voters seem to say.

As for politicians who have been around far too long, please make you exit gracefully. Pairin.for example, should learn the lesson taught to Sammy Vellu.

You don’t want your own community to do the same to you. Respectful as we are as Asians, understand the signs, please.

As a Sabahan, I have seen it all.

Three different parties with three different ideologies governing as one entity, can they get their act together?

They might portray themselves as the saviours of the country now, once the realities of power set in, many will be tempted by the devil.

One party believes in the chopping of hands , the other party believes in a Malaysian Malaysia, I am not clear what the other party wants to fight for that is different from UMNO, except it has a star politician as an advisor.

The cynic in me says it’s matter of time before they disintegrate, then the Malaysian in me wants things to work out for the sake of our future generations.

Whatever it is, Malaysian politics will never be the same again.

There is hardly any excitement except for the party workers distributing their pamphlets. The banners,the buntings, the flags are there but they don’t turn you on.

What does all this mean? There are many ways of looking at it.

My take on this is that the voters, at least, in the urban areas have already made up their mind who they are going to vote for if they go out to vote,that is. I have been trying to catch up with speeches and ceramahs from both sides, there are hardly any good ones that I am prepared to run to.The current wet weather has not been much of a help either.

One of my friends who is campaigning told me that some of the candidates are using technology to get their message across. By giving a power point presentation complete with photographs and other graphics the message is better conveyed to the target audience rather than listening to boring speeches.

And, don’t forget the ubiquitous hand phones, no smart politicians will leave home without one.

The approach is, therefore, more personal , it’s like the direct selling approach many of us are familiar with. See what technology can do to you. If video has killed the radio stars, the internet has flattened the world. If everybody can fly now,everybody can also write now(blogs and SMSes). As a result, information flies faster than the speed of sound.

I have been practically glued to the computer catching up with the alternative news on the latest goings on, the government controlled media have practically choked me to death with the same boring message of development. So, I don’t bother.

We all know the projects will never be given out in a fair manner unless you are connected to the people at the top. Voters like me want to know more about other things like fairness, accountability, corruption, security, education, the economy and all that. You know the soft side of development. At the end of the day we want to be better informed so that we can make the right decision when we cast our vote a week from now.

The government should realise by telling the public what is good for them is actually counter productive.Those we-know-what’s- best- for -you days are over, the voters these days are better educated and better informed. They want to decide for themselves, what they want are informed choices. In fact, the government will get more respect if the opposition is given some air time. This is called fairness. Does this sound familiar to you? It does not appear to exist in the government’s vocabulary, does it?

Meanwhile, I noticed they don’t do this in the Peninsular or in Sarawak, but, voters in Sabah are divided into Muslim Bumiputras, Non-Muslim Bumiputras and Chinese. Are you comfortable with this classification? Whose bright idea is this?

Since when we in Sabah identified ourselves along religious lines? Most of us are proud of our cultural heritage, thus I find the classification is rather stupid and insulting.

How do we know what religion a person practises by looking at the names in the electoral rolls? We know in Sabah a person with a Christian sounding name could be a Muslim, and vice versa. Most of the ethnic names are pretty neutral about their faith.

Then, with some of the Kadazandusun people, changing one’s religion is no big deal, so, how can the authorities be hundred percent sure of this oversimplified Muslim and non-Muslim Bumiputras dichotomy?

Why are the Chinese lumped into one single grouping, when they are followers of many religions? Obviously, there is inconsistency in this method.

Let’s go back to the familiar way of identifying our voters along ethnicity, and leave religion out of this, please.

We should be proud in telling the world of our unique diversity instead of oversimplifying it, don’t you think?

A cursory look at the preliminary list of candidates shows that many family members of current or former politicians are entering the fray. This is not limited to the government side but also the opposition.

This also appears to be a worldwide trend, in America there are political families like Kennedy, Bush and now Hilary is trying her best to bring the Clinton name into the political consciousness of the American people once again.

In Asia, it’s so routine, it’s almost boring.

Gloria Arroyo, Megawati Sukarnoputri, Benazir Bhutto, Indra Ghandi, Suu Kyi, Lee Hsien Loong are all daughters and son of former Presidents or Prime Ministers of their respective countries.

Looking at this trend, do ordinary citizens like you and me have any chance at all in leading the country unless you have the necessary political pedigree? Ability and merit sound a bit alien here. The wise people are right when they say life is never meant to be fair.

With the exception of the first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, children of former prime ministers are now well represented in the political life of the country, the latest addition being Mukhriz Mahathir. The list gets longer, former MCA president’s son, the Gerakan Advisor’s son, the disgraced Health Minister’s son are all said to be contesting in the coming elections.

The opposition leader, Lim Kit Siang, has always made sure that his party DAP is a family business. His son will now be contesting in Penang.The other DAP stalwart Karpal Singh’s son is also said to be contesting. Former Sarawak Governor’s daughter has been announced as a candidate. And, the Sarawak Chief Minister’s son is set to take over from his father’s parliamentary seat. Keadilan Anwar Ibrahim’s wife will be defending her Penang seat, now, daughter Nurul is said to be contesting in one of the seats in the Klang valley.

Not to be outdone, Prime Minister Badawi has given his influential son -in- law the green light to stand for parliament in Negeri Sembilan, and our Chief Minister’s son- in- law will be defending his seat in Membakut. It doesn’t stop here,of course.

Say what you want blood is thicker than water. While the general populace is all excited about the elections, for they feel they have a say in choosing the government, we tend to overlook at the not- so -subtle imposition of family political dynasties into our body politics of this country.

Putting this unhealthy trend aside, when I go out to vote on 8th March, some of the issues I’ll keep in mind are: what have the government done in terms of security, do I feel safe in my own land? What about corruption? Abuse of power? Also have the government been fair to the people in terms of economic opportunities, human rights etc?

As for the much repeated promise of development, it’s getting tedious, it’s the government’s job to develop the nation. We don’t want to believe in all these promises and then the contracts go to the privileged few.

Even if they don’t do a proper job,these people with the right political connections are hardly punished.There is hardly any accountability in this country.

If the government have been doing their job, how is that Sabah is now one of the poorest states in the country? Running water and electricity are unheard of in some parts of the state, so much for the promises of development!

It’s elementary really, we can continue with the status quo and have everything imposed in a “we know what’s good for you, don’t question us “approach like we are a bunch of imbeciles or we can vote for a real change.

The choice is ours.

Enough of philosophy, let’s get real. It’s the time of the year where the excitement is bigger than all the festivals combined together in the country. It happens every four or five years, so, everybody is into it. You know I am talking about the general elections due on 8th March.

Malaysians love elections, they will vote for the same government, then later curse the politicians they vote in to death. It’s the same old, boring story.

Sabahans have the reputation for being the boldest voters in the country, we dare go against the mainstream thinking by voting in a very unexpected manner. Ever since the coming of UMNO into the state, we have been very sober.

Are we going to maintain the status quo this time around?

Personally, I don’t see any new government being formed in the country. The government will probably not get the kind of support they received four years ago. So what? They will still form the government.

Some of my friends are adamant that the BN government in the state will fall. If we can vote solid opposition in,some even talking of denying the incumbents the two thirds majority, then we all can sleep well at night, I’d say.

The average Joe voter is upset what he perceives to be an indifferent attitude of the government in tackling a series of issues, for Sabahans it’s the illegals, enough said. Then, like anybody else the rising costs of essential items bothers him,which means his ringgit cannot stretch that far.

I think,what’s of concern to most of us is the perception that local politicians and other big guns are too busy lining their pockets at the expense of everything and everybody else, and they seem to be above the law.

We have become mere spectators at this cynical abuse of power, there is no check and balance. There is real anger and frustration amongst the better informed citizens. There does not seem to be a way out of this.

In the urban areas, the anti-government sentiment is very high,but, since when the government relies on the urban voters?

The real battle is in the rural areas, where sentiments and emotions are worked up to make sure the government is returned to power. And , the rural people will be kept in the dark and remain poor, so that they can turn to the government for hand outs, in exchange for votes.

Will the circle be unbroken?

It’s a bit boring reminding people to vote wisely. I like the American Presidential hopeful Barrack Obama’s tag line “CHANGE we can really believe in”.

Instead of being shortchanged by our greedy politicians forever and ever, the whole country needs a change for the better.

Is there someone in the country who can actually initiate change we all can believe in?

Let me know if you know of one, ok?

.

After producing a generation of graduates who are not proficient in the English language making them almost unemployable in the private sector; when the former Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir, announced that the two subjects would be taught in English, many parents were hopeful.

As a direct result, my primary school going nephews and nieces have improved their English tremendously with this policy change, and are very comfortable in speaking the language now. Children do learn very fast.

Unfortunately, in this country it is ever so common to see policies reversed in mid-stream because of political consideration.There is no commitment to see them through once obstacles surface. While the politicians score points , only God knows the damage done to future generations.

I understand the plight of our rural children, some of them can’t even speak Bahasa properly, what more English? This should be seen as a challenge actually.Many members of the older generation only knew “yes” or “no” when they first started learning English, because of the persistence of the colonial authorities, over time they became fluent in the language.

Instead of the usual flip flop approach, we should stay the course. Why didn’t we do it progressively in the first place?

Give the urban schools an earlier target , while the rural schools a slightly longer time frame. However, by certain time, all schools must do the two subjects totally in English. Period.

By giving this dual language option, many teachers will take the easy way out by teaching the subjects in their own mother tongue, this defeats the purpose and a step backward.

There is no point in screaming about having a good command of the English language to be competitive in the globalised market place . It’s understood. The Education Minister himself knows this very well by sending his daughter to study in Australia.

If he has faith in the English language education, he should also share this with all Malaysians, especially with the rural parents. We are only talking about two subjects here!

The parents only want their children to have a good job, and they know a good command of English or Mandarin will help them towards this.

Even little Brunei knows that only the English language can prepare their young to be competitive by teaching most of the subjects in the language. Now, their young citizens tend to have a better command of the language than our young people.

While we have gone to space, we can’t ignore our own planet. We need to move on fast into the globalised market place of the 21st century. To do this we must stay focused.