Traffic Jam - Motion of No Confidence - Today

This morning, there were roadblocks on all major road leading to Kuala Lumpur. The roadblocks started yesterday, and continued on until today.

Traffic was crawling, bumper to bumper, fuel burning, drivers honking, temper flaring, and as a result, my money flying to buy fuel. That was what happened on my way to Mid Valley Megamall yesterday. It was just chaos, police set up roadblocks everywhere. Stupid police! They reduced a four lanes highway into one. I refueled and faced yet again with another traffic jam, on another highway. Bloody hell.

Having lost count on the number of curses i made, every fucking derogatory words I can think of, in english, a little chinese "tiu" "mah hai", and some Kadazan dusun "kimbets" and malay.

Why? why? You know whenever there's a possible plan for opposition gathering, the police will be there manning the highway, like they don't have any other jobs to do. Better still, if the police are to be stationed in every bank, goldsmith and ATM in this country.

Nowadays, a lot of robbery cases happened in public. Even last night, I think a goldsmith had been robbed, somewhere in the city center. I would be glad if police are present when i withdraw money from the ATM or when i go to the bank to deposit a cheque.

I couldn't help but feel the strange inexplicable fear that something is going to happen whenever I am in a bank. A bank robbery, being shot dead, or wounded by stray bullets. Pheww... Too much hollywood Movie?

Yes it could happen to me, to you and to everybody else. Too much hollywood movie doesn't help. You cannot jump, grab the robber handgun, slides and shoots like Arnold Schwarznegger. No, don't do that please. Also, it could happen that when you double park in front of a bank, the robbers while trying to flee, may get into your car and drive off with you as a hostage.

The eery feeling is even more amplified when there's a cash delivering routine in the bank. You know those "Securicor van", carrying millions, usually guarded by a frail looking "pakcik" with even more sore looking pumpgun. I wonder how that pumpgun attached to a "pakcik" can match an automatic M-16 rifle. I would avoid that as much as possible, that is a prime time for robbers to strike. I wouldn't enter a bank when there's a cash delivery van parked in front.

The roadblocks were carried out in response to a possible no confidence motion to be moved against the Prime Minister today. It's rumored that a large gathering is to be held around the Parliament building. As a result, the public are also barred from entering the parliament building.

I said what the fuck! By right, gathering and demonstrations should be allowed to let the people air their grievances. Also, it's deja vu. It happened before. In the HINDRAF (Hindu Rights Action Force) rally, and BERSIH (coalition of Malaysian opposition political parties and NGO's with the stated aim of reforming the electoral process in Malaysia).

During the two demonstrations, the police did the same shit. They set up roadblocks. Bloody inconveniences to the Rakyat. You know lah, traffic jam and all. But still the demonstrations went ahead, contrary to what the government wanted to curb, the demonstrations proved successful and until today carried with it an even greater momentum. HINDRAF and BERSIH are the turning points in Malaysia politics, without them, I think Pakatan Rakyat would not be as successful as they are today.

Still the police don't realize it, what they are doing are causing many miseries to us Road Users. By setting up roadblocks and causing traffic jam, our anger towards the government is getting stronger, they are adding salt to the wound. It makes me more all the more influenced to join the rally in protest of what the government is doing.

Just look at the picture above, look at the policemen, they did nothing in the roadblocks. Absolutely nothing, except reducing the lanes to one, stood there and staring emptily at the passing cars. I bet the policemen didn't even know what they were supposed to do.

The policemen didn't event look inside my car. They wouldn't even notice if were to carry a Bazooka in my backseat. Maybe they were just silently complaining of having to endure the heat and the curses hurled at them by the public. And I saw three policemen and one policewoman chatting and laughing in the Sprint Highway roadblock. Fucking moron!

Oopps, I partially retract my words! The policemen are not all morons, they are not to be blamed entirely, I can understand their predicament, I thoroughly empathize with them. As a government servants, they have to follow order. Otherwise they will be fucked nicely.

The so called order must surely came from the paranoid government, the government is controlled by Barisan Nasional, and Barisan Nasional is controlled by UMNO.

Borneo Reality - Sabahans and Sarawakian (the Borneans)

Over the last weekend, I had Aramai Ti drinking and BBQ session with a bunch of Borneo friends. Sarawakians and Sabahans. As always, in any borneo hosted aramai ti session, the presence of alcohol is compulsory.

As usual variety of Tapai, Tuak and Langkau were the main attractions, top it with a couple of Thai Songs.

No no, it's not a Thailand music rendition, neither did we have Thai Hot Chicks to sing them, though I wish we had, hehe.

"Thai Song" is a cheapskates brand of bottled whiskey, commonly available in local supermarkets in Petaling Jaya and its vicinity. You can get it from local stores at a price starting from RM16.99 to RM19.99 in Giant Supermaket.

Among us, the aramai ti herd, we fondly call "Thai Song" simply as "Tai Sung". The taste, color and textures are deceivingly similar to Jack Daniel, the famous bourbon whiskey.



If I were to put the Thai Song content into a Jack Daniel bottle, I bet only a handful of people will be able to identify the difference. True whiskey connoisseur like my friend, a seasoned drinking champion. Not to worry though, because it is guaranteed to make you drop "kalapik" in no time.

Back to the Aramai ti Session, as always it was great to catch up with Sabahans and Sarawakian friends. There's a special bonding between us Borneans, the spirit of comradeship, camaraderie and always good rapport between us.

We share almost identical history, we formed Malaysia in September 16th 1963 as equal partners together with Malaya and Singapore. Both Sabah and Sarawak indigenous people are descendants of headhunters, we enjoy good traditional wines, we are proud of our ancestors and most of all we share the same political aspirations and hatred too, it's particularly true among my fellow friends.

After having one glass too many, as we were clinging on to last remaining bit of soberness, the conversations eventualy unavoidably turned to politics. As dirty as politics are to some people, we Borneans will not run away from it, as Borneans we have a deep rooted sense of insecurity after so many years in Malaysia.

This is partly because of the inconspicuous social marginalization faced mostly by the Non Muslim Bumiputra in both states. Also, a prolong institutionalization of subtle religious persecutions (forced conversions, ketuanan melayu, etc). Those topics came out top in our flurry and lively discussions.

Often interrupted by our friend ("tukang suki") who's holding the cup filled to the brim with intoxicating beverage, going round and pestering everyone to drink.

Intermittently, if someone took too long and struggles to finish a cup. We would sing the infamous annoying song to force him to drink.

Apa guna c Anu (Anu bukan nama sebenar) (2x)
Aiiya Anu ah! you are useless lah (Anu not a real name) (2x)
Kalau tida pandai moginum
if you don't know how to drink

Apa guna c Anu (Anu bukan nama sebenar) (2x)
Aiiya Anu ah! you are useless lah (Anu not a real name) (2x)
Kalau tida pandai monigum
if you don't know how to drink

Kalau tida minum
If you don't drink
Bagus pulang saja
You better go home

Kalau tida minum
If you don't drink
Basar kemaluan
You have Big Genital

(Repeat the songs - until of course the person emptied the cup)
* The english version with a Manglish twist

I frequently end up on the receiving end, for being the slowest drinker among us. I agree that you should go home if you don't want to drink, but the Basar Kemaluan part would make lots of people refuse to drink, for the fun of it.

We talked about the current status of Sabah & Sarawak, whereby now, instead of being regarded as a partner, we are merely the 13th and 14th state in Malaysia. How the previous leaders violated the agreements made during the formation of Malaysia. The twenty points agreements put forward by Sabah has been harshly derided, to the point of mockery.

Tun Datu Mustapha and Datuk Harris Salleh are largely culpable in the significant derision of the agreements. Datuk Harris Salleh is famously known as the one who literally sold Labuan to the federal government, and the money used for his own lavish greeds, which consist of foreign mistresses and even private jets.

Religious persecutions were also committed by these two leaders, their inspiration is to make Sabah as a muslim dominant state. As part of their malayisation campaign, the Berjaya government, and Tun Mustapha before that, sponsored mass conversions to Islam among the groups in the interior areas.

They also actually encouraged the inflow of illegal immigrants, giving them Identity Cards and the right to vote in order to “win the census”. The immigrants are almost entirely Muslim.

All in all, the governments under Mustapha and Salleh claimed to have converted 56,112 people to Islam between 1970 and 1985. And with their incorporation into society, the Muslim groups of the state would be able to hold on to power.

Although it's hard to swallow, I will admit that previous Sabahan leaders were unbelievably stupid, they totally imposed sectarian racism as a way of life in Sabah.

I am not against any creed or religion, nor do I have any qualms if all Sabah leaders are muslims. For me, as long as they can do their work sincerely and govern fairly, I am fine with it.

Religion was certainly out of my equation in choosing a leader. But to exploit religion to hold on to power is utterly senseless, preposterous! And that exploitation by UMNO alone, over time had injected hatred in our hearts. It may not be long before the marginalized beginning to revolt. Subversion may be the last resort, but it is not impossible.

Nowadays, Kadazan Dusun are further divided into religions. Whenever any leader speaks about Sabahans, they will categorically call us as either Bumiputra Islam, Bumiputra Bukan Islam, and others.

I suppose you remember during general election in 1994, the one where PBS lost to Barisan Nasional, not by proper democracy, but by apparent purchase of the bloody ADUNs.

Clearly in all the 1994 electoral lists, they showed the divide according to religions. Bumiputra Bukan Islam 40%, Bumiputra Islam 39% and so on. I see this as an attempt to divide the racial composition in Sabah, also to impose Ketuanan Melayu into Sabah.

On the other hand, I envy Sarawak as compared to the current status in Sabah. Just look at Sarawak, they have more state autonomies than Sabah. For one, UMNO has not invaded them, that makes them politically more powerful. We Sabahans are different, our own leaders brought UMNO into Sabah, in the process, they also sold piece of our land.

Thanks to the stupidity of Datuk Harris Salleh, he was also the one who inked the unbalanced distribution of oil money with Petronas, granting the oil company a good 95%. Whereas Sabah will only get tiny 5% of the oil revenues. But I think in this aspect, Sarawak is also getting the same lopsided deal as we do.

In the 12th general election, Sabah and Sarawak became the saviour for the ruling coalition. If not because of us, Barisan Nasional would have been eliminated. BN lost considerably in the peninsula. While Sabah and Sarawak contributed immensely to the simple majority won by Barisan Nasional.

Borneans are not happy on many issues with the federal government. But why the landslide win for Barisan Nasional? Giving BN the win can only show one thing, we are indeed content with the federal government. Confusing isn't it?

But then it struck me, after so many years of BN reign. The fine line between Borneo for Borneans and federal government injustice have been erased. I mean, as villagers in rural kampung. They only care about quintessential needs in life, like sugar and salt, coffee and tea, rice and vegetables. When they have these basic needs fulfilled, then the current government is good enough.

To attempt to vote for opposition is just to risky. That's why BN got a huge victory in Sabah and Sarawak. As my Iban friend told me, In between burps and belches... "Anak sedara saya dapat biasiswa cukuplah, satu keluarga mereka memuja BN".

Now we are at a juncture, we can take the same route as before and continue to be oppressed. Or we can take this off the beaten track to a new political revival and engineer our own destiny. However gloomy the journey may be, there will be a silver lining on the horizon.

The choice is in our hands.

Huguan Siou - Kadazan Dusun Paramount Leader

I am compelled to write about Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin bin Kitingan. As He is the current Huguan Siou for the Kadazan Dusun. Huguan Siou is the title honored to the most prominent Kadazan Dusun leader in Sabah. This title is very close to the heart of each and every Sabahan.

We look up to Huguan Siou to guide us, to lead us into better future, plant a sense of belonging on this land, give us protection from adversaries, spread foods on our table, cuddle us in our sleep. Hmm.. that may sound overly mushy2, but yes i stand adamant that as homosapiens, we always need some sort of epitome to take us and show the way, it's basic human nature. Just as the need to find a leader is important, finding a good one is even more paramount.

If we cannot find it within ourself, then we seek our uncle, father, mother, makcik, balachi, taiko, macha, etc. It gets more complicated when you have more than one figures to look up to. Hence you will start to categorize these people to household, dictrict, national, and international level. Or from a different viewpoint, a politician, performer, and perhaps even criminals as role model! Shocking isn't it?


Just look at American Idol, Akademi Fantasia, Miss World, Manchester United, etc. Why do you think your friends cried when Germany lost to Spain or even when Chelsea lost to Manchester United. When not even a drop of their blood colored Germans or Caucasians. Why? I am puzzled as well. I think it's just our inherent attribute as human to have a sense of belonging to a particular person or group of persons, as in a team.

When our friend support a soccer team, you want to join them and be a part of the group. You long for recognition so that when your friends talk about a team, they will refer that you belong to this team or that society.


Why? Why? Why? Germany Lost! Woaarrgghhhh....

I have some friends who don't even know anything about Manchester United, but he bought the team's jersey and sang the same chorus as his fellow supporters. At the end of the day, i think the emotion shown by most people are fake, skin deep and meaningless. You follow the majority, how they react to a situation and amplify that emotion on yourself to gain more recognition.




Now back to the Huguan Siou. Our first Huguan Siou was the venerable Tun Fuad Stephens, which is of course the founding father of Sabah. The figure responsible in bringing Sabah into the federation of Malaysia. Then came Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin bin Kitingan and currently he still is the incumbent.

The title Huguan Siou is an institutionalized paramount leader of the Koisaan. The power and responsibility to bestow the Kadazandusun Paramount Leadership Title termed as Huguan Siou rests with the KDCA (Kadazan Dusun Cultural Association), which, upon the vacation of the Huguan Siou's Office, may hold an Extra-ordinary Delegate's Conference to specifically resolve the installation of their Huguan Siou.

The title is given conspicuously to a person who contributed a great deal, willing to sacrifice and keep his people united without hidden motives. Award of multi-million dolar projects to family member included in the list of sins (in Huguan Siou perspective). In short, Huguan Siou must have all the virtues that Kinoringan has. Nowadays, finding these virtues in our people is very difficult, if not impossible.


I always believe that as human, however revered, you are still not GOD. Pope is not GOD, Ahmadinejad is not GOD, Kim Jung Ill is definitely not GOD but a tyrant who oppressed his people. Based on the above statements, you can conclude that All Human are not GOD, Huguan Siou is a human, therefore Huguan Siou is not GOD. Understand?

The previous statement holds true to all humans in position of power (king, prime minister, etc).

If one is not performing all the virtues as expected, thus he can be dethroned from the position. It's as simple as that. Take him down, strip him from the title he has been enjoying for so long at the Rakyat expenses. Because if no leader is considered worthy of the Huguan Siou's title, then so be it, leave the title vacant.

Until one day, when one redeemer rises amongst us and be worthy of the position. Because right now, I personally think Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin Kitingan has forgotten about his Huguan Siou role, instead he is eclipsed by the struggle for power. But i know there are staunch PBS supporters out there who will strongly disagree with me. I may be wrong, you be the judge.

I think he fought and still is fighting for more federal government representatives from Sabah, which is partially a good thing. Yes we have minister in the prime minister department, minister of science, bla bla bla. Did they do any good to Sabahans in general? Apart from recognition as Sabahan in cabinet, what else can they boast about? Did they help increase our income per capita in Sabah? Did they help stop the influx of illegal immigrant into Sabah? NO.


It has become even dirtier when billions were recently poured by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, which of course many see it as a fire extinguisher to doused off Sabahans anger towards federal government.

However, as a man on the street, we feel that no amount of money or luxuries can be compared to state autonomy, freedom in religion, administration, and immigration. Plus of course the liberty in sharing the treasures of our land (oil).

With the present ruling coalition, the dream for these freedoms, will remain as they are 100 years from now. No hope in changing the constitution, there will be no hope to alleviate the people's suffering.

On the same note, I support Datuk Yong Teck Lee idea for the formation of an independent political bloc in Sabah and Sarawak.

Much that the people want this to happen, we have not heard of Datuk Seri Pairin supporting the move. Instead what he did has invoked much wrath in the air. He had reiterated his strong support to the administration of the ruling coalition. Indeed his moves had inadvertently switched the focus to the relevance of his position as Huguan Siou, because clearly judging by the mood in the air, Pairin had acted singularly in striking contrasts with what the people wanted.

There have been much talk about current position of Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin Kitingan. Is he up for the tasks? In which the answer is NO for majority of educated Sabahans, and also among the netizen. You can view a thread on Sabahforum.com that discusses everything about politics in Malaysia, especially in Sabah. One thread discuss about Adakah Datuk Pairin masih layak dengan gelaran HUGUAN SIOU? .

It's good to see that more young Sabahans are becoming politically savvy. Knowing their rights and often discuss about violations of the "Twenty Points" Agreements.

Dicussions often touched on sensitive issues that have long been neglected by the government, state and federal alike. Often critically commented and sometime outright curses were hurled at particular leader. And guess what? The frequently discussed topic is about the current Huguan Siou.

I am personally pleading to Datuk pairin to explain to the people what are his party PBS political stands, to be fair to him he has been quiet most of the times, except two or three times when he spoke of absolute support to the ruling coalition.


Knowing politics, there's a possibility that his stands might be different than what he uttered, you knowlah "Jaga Pantat" direct translation from english "To Save Ass" (Caution: Not Applicable to West Malaysian Language, only to Sabahans, but Metaphorically also can lah!), and they (politicians) are well known to be split-tongued.


Hopefuly the tide will turn, for our leaders to take heed at the voice of the people.

Sabahan Perspective - Evil Policies

Recently Parti Maju Sabah (SAPP) enlisted 14 requests to the federal government. Among the requests is for the federal government to return certain degree of autonomy to the people of Sabah. It's not that Sabahans have not attempted this manouvre, they did, but they paid a very high price for the struggle. The price paid came in the form of a dictatorial/draconian Internal Security Act (ISA). In Malaysia, this law is used to preemptively imprison any potential antagonist of the ruling government. Any political opponent can be arrested and thrown into jail without trial solely on the discretion of the Minister of Home Affairs, which is directly controlled by the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

The previous Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohammad had exercised the act, and he did it successfuly in his 22 years in office. Nobody dared to speak up, opposition politicians numbered by the hundreds were incarcerated without trial in Kamunting Detention Center. Former detainees have testified to being subjected to severe physical and psychological torture designed to humiliate and frighten detainees into revealing their weaknesses and breaking down their defences.

This is exactly what happened to the leaders of Parti Bersatu Sabah. According to the record there were 7 of them namely, Damit Undikai, Albinus Yudah, Benedict Topin, Abdul Rahman Ahmad, Maximus Ongkili and Vincent Chung. The reason for the ISA detention is given simply "They are staging a threat to the country security". It is alleged that these leaders were devising a plan to secede the state of Sabah from the Federation of Malaysia.

18 years had passed since the so called Operation Talkak. Out of the seven, i think two are still prominent in the contemporary Malaysian politics. Sadly these two are on different sides of the political power. Datuk Dr. Maximus Ongkili is now holding the government portfolio of Minister of Technology, Science and Innovation. Whereas Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan is currently the vice president of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR Sabah), the biggest opposition party in Malaysia.

Since his release just before the 1994 election, Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan has been flipped-flopped in his decisions. He gained victory through PBS in the 1994 state election.

What he did after PBS won a wafer thin majority in that election and subsequent actions indicated that his detention under ISA had a profound effect on his very thought processes. The brainwashing procedures could be the factor in his character, and the timing of his release from ISA suggests that he was just a puppet, and the string is attached to someone higher up in the government. However this is just a conjecture. The fact is Datuk Jeffrey deserted PBS and joined Barisan Nasional, which led to the downfall of PBS that is led by his brother Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan.

Now Sabahans can only hope that someone of his calibre will emerge and fight for the Kadazan Dusuns.

Besides the autonomy and an attempt to secede, PBS also calls for 50-50 redistribution of revenue from Sabah's natural resources, particularly from crude oil. I think that the formulae is reasonably fair (kira okaylah) for Sabah, rather than the current lopsided deal of 95-5, with 95% going to the federal government and 5% to Sabah.

Lately there are talks that Pakatan Rakyat under the leadership of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (ISA Detainee Alumni himself) is offering Sabah an irresistible 20% oil royalty. The promise would surely be seen as a carrot for the Sabah Barisan Nasional representatives. Rumours are rife that SAPP and UPKO find this too hard to dismiss. And they are ready to jump onto the bandwagon. Coupled with the lucrative prospect of a Deputy Prime Minister Position in the federal government and of course the 20% oil royalty.

But as a Sabahan, I honestly don't understand why should we be content with a meagre 20%? Why not take advantage of the current bargaining power and ask for more. Afterall we are entitled for it, the oil is ours. It's dug out of our soil, our heritage. I'd like this to be an open invitation for the leaders to follow-up on PBS demand in the 90's. For God sake, please ask for 50%.

Since Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi took over from Mahathir, the situation turn for the better. More and more parties are beginning to speak up, the government is criticised openly, in the media (although still questionable), radio and newspapers. And the rise of internet as an alternative media has a profound impact on the growth of discontent towards the government.

Abdullah has plenty of chances to arrest these opporturnists under the ISA, but he didn't, he is taking bureaucratic approach. Which is the precise reason why some quarters are of the opinion that he is a weak leader, and loudly requesting him to step down. His prominent critics is undeniably Tun Dr. Mahathir himself.

I found an article on the internet about the incidents involving PBS leaders and the ISA, entitled Operation Talkak. You can find it here Operation Talkak

Also a book on the crisis during the 90's between the Federal Government of Malaysia and the Sabah's PBS. This book summarized the events that took place then. You can read it from google books abdication...

I take this excerpt from the book, i think it's worth for us to ponder.

...please do not pursue the idea of making Brunei the 12th State, Sarawak the 13th State and North Borneo (Sabah) the 14th State of the Federation. We are frankly not interested. "Donald Fuad Stephens".

That statement exactly summed up everything what we Sabahans are feeling. We do not want anything more than what have been enshrined in the memorandum of "Twenty Points". We just want to be treated as an equal partner in the federation of Malaysia. The points must be upheld and put into practice. And as what Datuk Yong Teck Lee have said, the window of opportunity is now, and it's closing. It's now or never.