Rotation of Chief Minister among the three communities
When Umno entered Sabah, it promised equal political partnership in the state and in the 1994 Sabah state general elections, it pledged that the post of Chief Minister would be rotated among the three major communities if Barisan Nasional toppled the PBS state government.
However, this had been violated in implementation – further proof of the political, economic and social marginalization of the KDM community.
The Sabah Chief Minister rotation-system had worked unfairly and inequitably against the KDM community – producing four UMNO Chief Ministers to represent the Malay community, two Chinese Chief Ministers but only “half” a Chief Minister for the Kadazandusun community, as Tan Sri Bernard Dompok was only Chief Minister for ten months!
Now the Chief Minister is made permanent property of UMNO to reflect Umno’s political hegemony in Sabah. Surely, before there is a change of the Sabah Chief Minister rotation system, the KDM community should have their fair opportunity to complete two terms of the office. i.e. four years, as had been enjoyed by the Malay and Chinese communities.
When Umno entered Sabah, the Prime Minister and Umno President Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad promised that Umno culture will be different from those of the Sabah political parties and promised to remove any Barisan Nasional state leader who was corrupt. In the 1994 general election, campaigning under the pledge to eradicate corruption in Sabah, Sabahans were urged to reject corrupt leaders (referring to the PBS state government of Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan).
In the past 13 years, not only have all the “corrupt” Sabah leaders whom UMNO had earlier urged Sabahans to reject have one after another joined Barisan Nasional, but not a single corrupt Barisan Nasional leader had been removed although corruption had never been more serious at any stage of its history.
Five years ago, there were the following cynical comment in an article in the Sunday Star about the Sabah politics of musical chairs which should have been the subject of a soul-searching by the relevant authorities about public integrity and zero-tolerance of corruption in public life:
“Ask politicians and journalists about the rotation system, and they will jokingly say: ‘One CM took the hills, one gave away the sea, one signed off the valleys and another bet on watery deals.’
“They cannot help but compare what veteran politicians say about the Usno-Berjaya-PBS governments: ‘Usno took the meat of the timber, Berjaya the bones and PBS the crumbs with Barisan looking at leftovers.’”
Everyone in Sabah knew what was meant by the cynical comment that “One CM took the hills, one gave away the sea, one signed off the valleys and another bet on watery deals” except for the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA), which seemed to be the only one ignorant about its implications.
That was five years ago, but today, under Musa Aman, corruption in Sabah has reached an even more rotten state, to the extent that a police report was recently lodged with regard to 25 serious corruption allegations against the Musa by a former Sabah State Minister, Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan.
The 25 allegations of Jeffrey against Musa total malpractices running into billions of ringgit but up to now no serious attention has been given either by the Sabah Chief Minister, who said he was not bothered by them, or the Prime Minister or the ACA.
Sabah and Sarawak, under Chief Ministers Musa and Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, are now the two states with the worst problem of corruption and the Prime Minister must be prepared to deal with them courageously if his pledge of making anti-corruption top priority of his administration is not to become a farce
When Umno entered Sabah, it promised equal political partnership in the state and in the 1994 Sabah state general elections, it pledged that the post of Chief Minister would be rotated among the three major communities if Barisan Nasional toppled the PBS state government.
However, this had been violated in implementation – further proof of the political, economic and social marginalization of the KDM community.
The Sabah Chief Minister rotation-system had worked unfairly and inequitably against the KDM community – producing four UMNO Chief Ministers to represent the Malay community, two Chinese Chief Ministers but only “half” a Chief Minister for the Kadazandusun community, as Tan Sri Bernard Dompok was only Chief Minister for ten months!
Now the Chief Minister is made permanent property of UMNO to reflect Umno’s political hegemony in Sabah. Surely, before there is a change of the Sabah Chief Minister rotation system, the KDM community should have their fair opportunity to complete two terms of the office. i.e. four years, as had been enjoyed by the Malay and Chinese communities.
When Umno entered Sabah, the Prime Minister and Umno President Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad promised that Umno culture will be different from those of the Sabah political parties and promised to remove any Barisan Nasional state leader who was corrupt. In the 1994 general election, campaigning under the pledge to eradicate corruption in Sabah, Sabahans were urged to reject corrupt leaders (referring to the PBS state government of Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan).
In the past 13 years, not only have all the “corrupt” Sabah leaders whom UMNO had earlier urged Sabahans to reject have one after another joined Barisan Nasional, but not a single corrupt Barisan Nasional leader had been removed although corruption had never been more serious at any stage of its history.
Five years ago, there were the following cynical comment in an article in the Sunday Star about the Sabah politics of musical chairs which should have been the subject of a soul-searching by the relevant authorities about public integrity and zero-tolerance of corruption in public life:
“Ask politicians and journalists about the rotation system, and they will jokingly say: ‘One CM took the hills, one gave away the sea, one signed off the valleys and another bet on watery deals.’
“They cannot help but compare what veteran politicians say about the Usno-Berjaya-PBS governments: ‘Usno took the meat of the timber, Berjaya the bones and PBS the crumbs with Barisan looking at leftovers.’”
Everyone in Sabah knew what was meant by the cynical comment that “One CM took the hills, one gave away the sea, one signed off the valleys and another bet on watery deals” except for the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA), which seemed to be the only one ignorant about its implications.
That was five years ago, but today, under Musa Aman, corruption in Sabah has reached an even more rotten state, to the extent that a police report was recently lodged with regard to 25 serious corruption allegations against the Musa by a former Sabah State Minister, Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan.
The 25 allegations of Jeffrey against Musa total malpractices running into billions of ringgit but up to now no serious attention has been given either by the Sabah Chief Minister, who said he was not bothered by them, or the Prime Minister or the ACA.
Sabah and Sarawak, under Chief Ministers Musa and Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, are now the two states with the worst problem of corruption and the Prime Minister must be prepared to deal with them courageously if his pledge of making anti-corruption top priority of his administration is not to become a farce
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