Category: Politics

Politics

Anwar trips on Sabah

Sabah Insights

Will the Borneo state ever get what the federal government owes it

It was painful to watch prime minister Anwar Ibrahim struggling to explain why Sabah and Sarawak are getting the lion’s share of federal money for development in next year’s budget. And perhaps for the first time, Mr Anwar alluded to his government’s financial obligation to the east Malaysian Borneo states under the Malaysia Agreement of 1963. Famously known as MA63, it sets out terms for their membership, safeguards, special privileges and autonomy in the 13-state Malaysian federation. These have already been written into the federal constitution. Yet Mr Anwar stumbled while answering questions in parliament on November 2 in a feeble attempt to pacify peninsular critics that his government is giving too much attention to east Malaysia. What has been left unsaid is the hundreds of billions of ringgit, not to mention earnings from oil and gas, that Putra Jaya has profited from Sabah and Sarawak.

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Politics

Changing partners

Sabah Insights

Hajiji Noor turns his quest for power into an art

Hajiji Noor

Hajiji Noor, 66, cuts a demure figure. His friends say he is soft spoken, kind and approachable. But behind that staid exterior rages a ruthless spirit hell-bent on crippling his opponents in order to keep his Sabah chief minister’s post that he almost lost. And he has turned his quest for power into an art.

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Barisan Nasional, Courts, Government, Harris Salleh, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Politics, Sabah, Syed Kechik

A likely pyrrhic victory, either way

Sabah Insights

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Syed Kechik and Mustapha Harun (right)

It may be Malaysia’s strangest court case in which the living fight tooth and nail over a dead man’s honour. Only that victory is likely to be pyrrhic; whichever way it goes. Syed Kechik Syed Mohamed died a broken man at 81 in 2009, leaving an estate of 400m ringgit ($99m) and without exonerating himself of the wrongs Sabah accused him of. In a civil suit brought against him by the trustees of Sabah Foundation, a philanthropic trust, the Sabah high court in 1999 found him guilty of fraud and to have breached his fiduciary duty as the Foundation director. A book, “Vendetta and Abuse of Power”, which tries to clear his name, albeit posthumously, is now the subject of a libel suit brought by former chief minister Harris Salleh. But the three days of open court hearing which began on August 23 turned out to be a sparring match between Mr Harris and those he is suing for defamation. Continue reading “A likely pyrrhic victory, either way” →

Barisan Nasional, Bernard Dompok, Government, Joseph Pairin Kitingan, Malaysia, Parti Bersatu Sabah, Penampang, Politics, Sabah, Upko

Bernard Dompok: Losing to win

Sabah Insights

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Bernard Dompok

For Bernard Dompok, things don’t always turn out as he wishes. But the 66-year-old indigenous Kadazandusun politician can often count on his lucky stars. Born in the largely rice-growing suburb of Penampang, the heartland of Kadazan nationalism, Mr Dompok was the only Sabah chief minister to have been voted out by his people with a vengence. It wasn’t his first defeat in 1999, though. Voters kicked him out from the Penampang parliamentary seat twice – in 1995 and then in 2013. Yet defeat is sweet for Mr Dompok who has become Malaysia’s first ambassador to the Vatican. He is a Roman Catholic.

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Courts, Government, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Politics, Sabah

The ghost of Syed Kechik

Sabah Insights

Seven years after his death, Sabah’s most hated man has come to haunt

Syed Kechik Syed Mohamed (picture) was Sabah’s most hated man. So much so that the now defunct Parti Berjaya made his expulsion from Sabah as one of its election promises. It swept to power in 1976, ending Mustapha Harun’s nine years of iron-clad rule which was mostly blamed on Syed Kechik. He died in 2009 at the age of 81. He was Mustapha’s right hand man; but many saw him as Sabah’s de facto chief minister. The courts then forestalled his expulsion. But for three days starting tomorrow (Aug 22) the high court in Kota Kinabalu will hear a libel suit brought by former chief minister Harris Salleh over allegations in a book, “Vendetta and Abuse of Power”, that he had abused his power and was vindictive in seizing Syed Kechik’s properties.

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Politics

Pamela Yong: Like mother, like daughter

Sabah Insights

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Dr Pamela Yong

Malaysian politicians never learn. The last thing that guests want to hear at a dinner is their speeches; particularly when they have nothing to say. So in the 10 minutes when Dr Pamela Yong spoke, the 300 aged dinner guests chattered away disdainfully – oblivious to her presence at their party. They were there in Kota Kinabalu on December 5 to celebrate the 28th year of their Sabah Association of Senior Citizens.

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Politics

Obituary: Chau Tet On, an ethnic Chinese leader who never was

Sabah Insights

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Chau Tet On cut a demure figure. But his smiling face camouflaged 10 years or more of frustrations that his politics had come to nought. Few ethnic Chinese looked to his leadership despite he being the first among them to become a Sabah deputy chief minister in 1985 in Joseph Pairin Kitingan’s government. His Parti Bersatu Sabah had swept to power, defeating the unpopular Parti Berjaya in a state general election. Continue reading “Obituary: Chau Tet On, an ethnic Chinese leader who never was” →

Politics

A lawmaker’s unusual goodbye

Sabah Insights

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Roland Chia Ming Shen

His resignation as an opposition Sabah lawmaker wasn’t just abrupt. It was unusual. But Roland Chia Ming Shen, a 44-year-old dentist, got the attention he wanted through a tweet yesterday. He said he was giving up his Inanam seat because of “health reasons”.

Officials of his Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People’s Justice Party) quickly dismiss his resignation. Many suspect that it might be sinister at a time when his party de facto president Anwar Ibrahim is trying to stay out of prison on a second sodomy charge. Mr Anwar was freed by an appeals court of a five-year jail term handed to him by a high court. But prosecutors are asking Malaysia’s highest federal court to decide if Anwar should be rightly found guilty and jailed for sodomising his helper.

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