Third Force – to champion the rights of minorities in Malaysia
Taken from The Malaysian Insider
Written By Neville Spykerman
Dayakbaru:
Who will really focus on championing the rights of the indigenous people minorities in Sabah and Sarawak and that of Malaya?
The British provided for a TWO steps process before Malaysia was formed. The first step was to create a Federation of Borneo States. The late Tunku Abdul Rahman push this requirement aside and go ahead to form Malaysia without going through the first step.
The reason for Tunku action was his recognition that Malaya resources to create further economic development has reach its limit. Malaya strategy of “big plantation” in rubber and palm oil could not provide enough money for Malaya to economically progress further. But the potential of Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei oil and gas is too great for Malaya to miss out.
Tunku made the announcement on the formation of Malaysia which took our founding fathers by surprise. Malaya has two agenda:
1. to use the population of the natives of Sarawak and Sabah as an addition to Malay population to strengthen Tunku position vis a vis Lee Kwan Yew Chinese ratio. Tunku succeeded.
2. to grab the oil and gas from Sarawak and Sabah and use it a a main source to delevop Malaya.Tunku succeeded.
Both strategy is now being used by UMNO and supported by BN component parties.
The Dayak / natives of Sarawak and Sabah is never an important equation to Malay in Malaya. Till today the opportunities and the needs of the Dayak /native of Sarawak and Sabah is NOT AN IMPORTANT agenda for BN or PR. This is despite the fact that Sabah and sarawak Dayak provide BN the numbers to form the Federal government.
What will be our next step in such a scenario?
The article below laid out the direction that we can take. Sarawak / Sabah and minorities of Malaya should form up a new political platform with the sole purpose of fighting for the rights of Dayak / natives and other minorities in order to move in tandem with the main stream development in Malaysia as a Third Force in Malaysian politics. We can be the king maker and play an important role in Malaysian politics.
Minorities made up of Dayak / natives from Sabah and Sarawak in BN or PR may not be able to change the political and economic development challenges.
My question is – should we take this course of action. Let us debate it here.
KOTA KINABALU, Dec 1 – The Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) may soon team up with indigenous parties in Sabah and Sarawak to form a third force, one neither aligned to Pakatan Rakyat (PR) nor Barisan National (BN), ahead of the 13th General Elections.
Exiled Hindraf chairman P. Waythamoorthy, who has been abroad since the movement was banned following street protests in 2007, and former PKR vice-president Datuk Jeffrey Kittingan met in Singapore earlier last month, while another meeting is planned in Britain next month.
“An initial understanding was reached that a third force is needed to take on both PKR and BN in the next general elections,” said Waythamoorty in a phone interview with The Malaysian Insider.
Hindraf’s influence has been on the wane after successfully uniting the marginalised Indian community against the BN government in the run-up to last year’s general elections.
Several splinter parties led by former leaders have emerged from its shadow.
Any coalition will include Hindraf’s political wing, the Human Right’s Party (HRP) led by Waythamoorty’s brother, former Internal Security (ISA) detainee Uthayakumar, with parties from Sabah and Sarawak.
“We are leaving it to Jeffrey to mobilise the parties in East Malaysia,” Waythamoorty said.
Jeffrey, who heads the Common Interest Group (CIG) in Sabah and Sarawak, described the talks with Waythamoorty as “exploratory.”
“Discussions are still at a preliminary stage but in politics anything is possible,” said Jeffrey, when asked if the “tie-up” would pave the way for him leaving PKR to form a third political force in Malaysia, similar to the Liberal party in the United Kingdom.
The idea of the third force is to protect the rights of marginalised and indigenous groups while providing an alternative choice to the people, said Jeffrey.
He did not discount the possibility that the non-partisan CIG, which he described as a civil society movement, could evolve into a third force with Hindraf.
“It depends on what the people want,” he said.
Conclusion
Dayakbaru is willing to organize and host such a discussion to be held in Miri as soon as possible. What is your thought on this?
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Inspirational word from gkm2020
Dear friends,
In Malaysia, the natives of Sarawak and Sabah are minorities. In Sarawak and Sabah the natives are the majorities.
Who should fight for the minorities? A third force? No, the third force can’t stand the fight and will crumble before it starts, besides it will not last.
The fight for the natives in Sarawak and Sabah must be the natives themselves with their fellow-Sarawakians and Sabahans as collaborators and partners. Just develop an excellent agreement based on justice and equality to bind themselves together.
Can we trust the minorities of Malaya to fight for Sarawakians and Sabahans and form a party to last? The answer is a BIG no. The divide is too wide and the culture a world apart.
The losers will be the natives of Sarawak and Sabah by alienating their own Sarawakians and Sabahans of other racial groups and losing their hopes of having their own Chief Ministers. Fear and betrayal might be created among own people.
The above reasons are good enough to dismiss the idea of the third force.
No disrespect to the minorities of Malaya.
The natives of Sarawak and Sabah must be as cautious as a virgin and as smart as a mouse-deer.
God keep Sarawak and Sabah safe.
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Begulai sejalai enggau minoriti ari malaya, lebih agi bala tambi enda entu setuju aku kaban. Tambi maioh pintar enda baka kitai menoa sepiak kitu. Kitai diempa sida ujung2 ia ila. Enti bekunsi dagang anang sekali-kali begulai enggau bansa tu, enda badas. Engka bisi ga sida ke badas baka kitai, tang generally ia enda aa….
Friends…the root causes of all these problems are:
1. Sabah and Sarawak Head of Governnment Administration is Chief Minister which is having the same economic authority level with Chief Minister/MB of all ther States in Malaya.
2. All Chief Minister/MB(inclding Sabah and Sarawak) are reporting to Prime Minister of Malaya NOT Malaysia.
3. Priorities for Prime Minister of Malaya are of course Malaya’s Agenda.
Lee Kuan Yew wanted Singapore to have its own Prime Minister, but Tungku refused and this led to Singapore leaving Malaysia. LKY saw the implication if Singapore head of Administration as CM as the position would be reporting to PM of Malaya and therefore it had to comply with Malaya’s agenda. So inspite of all the neotiation Malaya refused and Singapore left. Sarawak and Sabah did not fully understand the impact and so remained in Malaysia.
So friends, shall we revive back Sarawak and Sabah to have their own Prime Minister and report to Prime Minister General of Malaysia or remain statu quo and live with the HANDOUTS from Prime Minister of Malaya????? All Sabah and Sarawak people must think about this if we want chang to us
I say it’s worth a gamble. The Dayaks are fighting for their survival, and under the circumstances, even a tiny ray of hope is good enough. So let’s be a little more optmistic…let’s not shoot the idea too quickly.
when will we ever learn. i tell you again that the malaya people be it chinese,malay,indian and other if there is any cannot be trusted.
they have their own agenda,problem,culture,look,shape and everything. ain’t 46years with or under them is not enough.
equaliser is write when he said, “…Can we trust the minorities of Malaya to fight for Sarawakians and Sabahans and form a party to last? The answer is a BIG no. The divide is too wide and the culture a world apart. ” i don’t see any disability in his statemaents.
it is us, you and me, the doc tune of guitar is right lately, DB & DL have to be united in fighting the promising battle in the next GE.
sabah is also in the same u-boat/fate with us.
what third force? are we copycat the MCA fued? if that is fail, then fourth force,then 5th force?
wake-up chap! the battle change we must offensive is calling for you. and we will be fighting in GE until the very last gun is still fire!
yeah wake up!!! BN is party found in peninsular and was brought to sabah and sarawak!!! we must overthrow BN right now!!!!!!
i quote a comment from malaysia insider:
“You give people a third choice and you will see PR’s votes split. BN will win, with a landslide. Hindraf is doing exactly what BN wants, which is to not cooperate with PR. It doesn’t matter if Hindraf is working against BN. BN doesn’t need Hindraf to be on its side to serve its purpose of remaining dominant over PR.
BN does not give a hoot about the marginalised communities.
Makes you wonder whether Hindraf really has become a tool of BN. “
A third national level political party to take on PR and BN, or to ally with either – only make sense, if it can distinguish itself from both, example by structurally organizing itself along the Confederation model.
Sabah and Sarawak members/supporters of PR will remain a minority in the political organisation, almost in the same manner as the supporters of BN.
For that reason: national-level issue such as oil royalty, autonomy, culture, fed funding etc may not get the required attention from the PR collective leadership.Remember that Dr Jeffrey had put it to PKR leadership to recognise the 18-point agreement as precondition for him to stay on in PKR.Todate, there has been no position yet from PKR while some DAP leadership via Tunku Aziz (it maybe his personal views – not the party) had expressed some sympathy for Sabah and Sarawak.I therefore would conclude that, while we should applaud Dr Jeffrey for seeking greater autonomy, PR leadership may not want to grant this key wishes of Sabah and Sarawak – even for the price of ALL of the Parlimentary seats from both states !
If the proposed 3rd national level party is to champion the cause of turning the Malaysian Federation to a Confederate, AND THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART – and that the party would structure itself along the Confederation model, in that regardless of membership size from each of the 3 regions from Sabah, Sarawak and Malaya,the party leadership will be shared equally by the 3 region – then, the proposed new party would be a game changer in Malaysian politic – and should garner support in Sabah and Sarawak (for people who understand the implication).
The question is whether such a Confederate political party can exist in a Federated structure.Also, realistically – who in Peninsula Malaysia would support the party in large numbers and to give equal decision-making powers to the presumably minority members from Sabah and Sarawak ? Sabah and Sarawak will have to offer a grand bargain – for the Peninsula folks to be interested !
If the purpose of the so-called 3rd force is to be the refuge of all minorities,civic groups and NGOs, it will still not be able to stand on its own – and will need to be a coalition partner with PR or BN. Which is to say – going back to square one.
In conclusion: for the moment, the PR members of Sabah and Sarawak should stake a common position and then to seek written support from PR leadership example on the issue of oil royalty. If the answer is a firm NO, or non-committal – then there maybe no choice but to form a new Confederate (Sabah,Sarawak,Malaya) party as outlined and then to seek out support from the Malaysian public through a new grand bargain, or Social Contract.In another word, the idea of forming a 3rd political party, is only a last resort – and has to be tempered against the unintended consequence of undermining PR capacity to compete with BN.
Dayak/Iban begulai enggau TAMBI and Jeffry????
Anang bermimpi, TAMBI enda tau sekali kali enggau begulai. URAR……MELIT!!!
Orang Sabah ka bekuasa atas anak SARAWAK??
Tanya orang Sabah kala aki ini, tiris pantis sida nulung pengelikun menoa Sarawak ari kelia nyentuk ka diatu? Ni pemintar, ni pemandai sida??
ANAK SARAWAK kelebih agi ANAK IBAN, abis buntut menoa Sabah di tulung anak IBAN, nulung sida ngalus ke menoa sida, nyaga pengelikun menoa sida. Anang ka megai ngulu ka orang, menoa diri empu suba, diatu pan enda olih di jaga, ka nyaga menoa orang?? Ha….ha…..ha…Nadai jalai orang Sabah ka nyadi pengulu anak Sarawak.
Indah sampai ke diatu, di pegai UMNO/MALAYA di Sabah din, tu nyebut ka megai anak Sarawak..??
Sarawak for Sarawakian ONLY. Never allow TAMBI interfere or enter the COUNTRY of Hornbil.
The idea was sound good but it have to be clear that what Sarawak and Sabah peoples wanted is greater autonomy and our 19(Swk)-18(Sbh) points agreement to be uplifted. Either it PR or BN, if only they can submit to that demands, there will be no problem with us the younger generation voters.
One thing that ligering in my mind, why Anwar Ibrahim not ready to conceding to Jeffrey Kittingan’s list of demand if he is really sincere in championing Sabahan & Sarawakian interest?
In Sarawak, we accept the appoinment of Baru Bian-a Lun Bawang as our prospective future CM (God Willing), but hey, don’t us still identify ourself based on own ethnicity. This moved tantamount to Tunku Rahman chosing a Melanau as a proxy to have control over Sarawak. Why not appoint a person of majority ethnic group who is in the same calibre.
To all Sarawak PKR Dayak leaders, this is the golden opportunity to mark up the ante.
Hai Dayaks, congratulation once again to every dayak who has the chance to put up ideas on this website. I am so happy to see that at last you were together in the issue of upbringing the dayak to this new era of surviving world. In fighting for the rigth of our sabah and sarawak, the most important point we should see is the unity of our very own race, the dayak and the kadazan dusun. Not until these major groups are strongly united, then we could talk about third force as mentioned.
For the moment, let us work paralelly to unite the dayak of sarawak first and give Jeffrey the job to unite the native group of sabah.
Let us do something more realistic first that is how are we going to balance the power sharing in the state? We are not going to take away our chinese or malay right, but we want to share fairly so that we can make decision together for the good of the people of sarawak.
I’ll leave the rest for you to discuss.
Dear Sabahans and Sarawakian, We in the West MAlaysia, (MALAYA) have always sympathised with how the UMNO government is treating you. ANd now, all your valuable resources and citizenship are being taken away from you. The UMNO government is going to make you stateless and bring in the INDONS and FILIPINOS and BAnglas and PAKISTANIs to take your lands. YOU need HINDRAF to bring your problems to the Internetional arena, and to UN. NO other political party in MAlaysia UMNO< BN OR even PR (PAS< DAP< PKR) is inetrested in your plight. They dont care about you or any other marginalised minorities in MAlaysia. You have not enough expertise to fight your cause alone, join HINDRAF. Those two brothers, Waythamoorthy and Uthayakumar are very sincere. Join forces with them and then all BN and PR political parties will bow to you!!!!Just mark my word!!!