July 15, 2011

New Sabahan

The other day I was having my breakfast at my former classmate's restaurant. As I was waiting for my favourite 'Bee Hoon Goreng Basah' to be served to me, I beckoned one of the girls that usually serves me, to my table.


She came over to my table, I told her to have a seat and then we had the following conversation :
Me : So, the other day, you told me that you are a Visaya? It’s Visaya right? Not Bisaya?
Girl : Yes, Visaya.
Me : So you are from the Philippines? Bisaya and Visaya are actually the same people right? Only that here, the Bisayas are Muslims and the Visaya in the Philippines are predominantly Christians.
Girl : Yes, they are the same. My parents are from the Philippines but I was born here.
Me : So you're a Christian?
Girl : My parents and I were Christian but we converted to Islam.
Me : I see. So do you have a Mykad?
Girl : Yes, I have a Mykad (she smiled sheepishly).
Me : Urh.. Don't you find it..urm..uncomfortable working in a Chinese restaurant and having to serve pork to customers?
Girl : Not at all! I only serve them and I don't touch the food.
Me : So where do you live?
Girl : Kampung Bingkul. I stay with my relatives.
Me : Where are your parents?
Girl : They are back in the Philippines but they will come for Raya soon.
Kampung Bingkul, by the way,  is hometown to our illustrious Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Aman and Foreign Minister Dato' Anifah Aman. Or at least they have relatives there. That kampung produced two ministers! Cool neighbourhood the girl live in.


I didn't bother asking the girl how she could have a MyKad since both her parents are not Malaysians. Despite what our Home Minister, Hishamudin, claimed. We know Project IC is real lah. And is it a coincidence that this new Sabahan is a Muslim convert?


A Catholic Filipino friend of mine whom went to the same secondary school as I, couldn't even get his application for Permanent Resident status approved! Let alone get a MyKad. He had applied numerous time for the past twenty years but had all rejected. He is a graduate, his family is of good standing and contributed to the state’s economy for decades but apparently that is not good enough for a Permanent Resident status. Last I heard, he has given up and moved to Dubai and apparently having a blast in that desert oasis.


Meanwhile, a distant cousin of mine married a Muslim Filipina. One day he told us that his wife's family got a call from Kuala Lumpur and were told to go to Kota Kinabalu to process their MyKad application. We were sceptical of it and thought that he might be walking into a con; Him being not the sharpest tool in the shed and all. But guess who is laughing in the end? It took only a few days for his wife’s family to be issued MyKads.


Another close relative whom was a teacher related to me about one of her pupils whom was a Filipino. She asked him why he had a Malay name when he was a Christian? The pupil perhaps being too trusting and ingenuous revealed to her that their family took up Malay names and declared themselves Muslims to facilitate 'easy administration' of their travel documents. I wonder what happened to the kid?


Except from Dr Chong Eng Leong’s book titled Lest We Forget, page 12 :
(2) Sabah’s interior was and is inhabited mostly by KDM people and their population increase from 1970 to 2000 was 162% but the Bajau-Irranum by 344% and Malay by 1,552%
(Table 2)


YearKDMBajau/IrranumMalay


1970

2000


Increase


215,811

564,600


162%


77,271

343,200


344%


18,362

303,500


1,552%


From page 25 of the same book:


(5) Jabar Khan – also an ex-ISA detainee who disclosed that there was a Sabah UMNO Special Task Force formed in 1991 and the office bearers for 1991 – 1993 were as follows:


Director : Datuk Musa Aman, currently Sabah Chief Minister
Deputy Director : Datuk Yahay Hussin, currently Sabah Deputy Chief Minister
Secretary : Jabar Khan himself
Treasurer : the late Datuk Malik Chua


The job of this Task Force was to recruit foreigners who were then issued Malaysian ICs and then registered as UMNO members and registered in Sabah electoral rolls. The target was 30 constituencies (out of 48) to ensure that by the next general elections PBS would be removed from power with the help of these phantom voters.


Jabar Khan’s testimony was published in HARAKAH on the 16-31 March 2007 issue (appendix 56) . He also revealed this to the Parliamentary Select Committee on National Integrity which was probing into the facts on this Project IC/Mahathir.
Anyway, if anyone is that deadset on becoming a Sabahan Malaysian even to the extent of turning their back to their religion, surely we must embrace them with open arms. A Filipina friend of mine told me that the Catholics in the Philippines are very staunch in their religion. They must have come from an oppressive and inhospitable place for them to consider conversion. For that matter, any Filipino including Muslim ones who even contemplate on sneaking into Sabah illegally must be that desperate.


The danger of the high seas, the risk of being apprehended and put into our infamous Rumah Merah and languishing there for months until deportation or sentencing, caning and even piracy. But if you somehow overcome all these and if you’re lucky you might find yourself being a newly minted Malaysian Malay.


By the way, according to Sabah Election Commission Director, Mr Md Idrus Ismail, as of 31 December 2011, only 848,473 people in Sabah registered themselves as voters. I’m guessing 100% of these new Sabahans are in the electoral roll, if Jabar Khan’s testimony is to be trusted. Wow, so there is automatic registration after all. Pity our folks in the rural areas were not extended the same efficient service.


Mr Idrus also said that 26.9% of the 1.1 million Sabahans who are aged 21 and above have yet to register??!!!


Address to my New Brethren


Many Sabahans vent their frustration at you, my new Sabahan brethren but really, they are actually angrier at the power that orchestrated this treachery. The way I see it, you are just a pawn. You are just as much a victim here as we are. While most Sabahans just want to get rid of you including your children, some of whom are stateless. I cannot in good conscience as a human being and as a parent joined in the chorus for your removal.


Some (a lot in fact) of you were born in Sabah, grew up in Sabah and only know Sabah as your home. I was told that your influx into Sabah started in the 70s, so some of you may be a third generation Filipinos/Filipinas in Sabah. I've put myself in your shoes and asked myself how would I feel if one day, I'm sent back to the Philippines which people tell me is where my root is. But my root is in Sabah and I don't speak an iota of Tagalog!  I grew up in Sabah and I even speak with a Bah! I heard of the Philippines but as far as I'm concerned, it is some foreign place.


Indeed it would be inhumane and an injustice. Therefore, this Sabahan will accept your presence but still object to the influx of new illegal immigrants.


Now, my new Sabahan brethren, now that you are here; What will you do to protect and preserve this land that provides your livelihood and a relatively comfortable live? By now, you should know that Sabahan cherish their peaceful and harmonious society. This must had been one of the factors that drove you to face the perilous journey to Sabah!


You have come here obviously for a better live for yourself and your children. Sabah apparently is a better alternative to your homeland. Would you help preserve our society so that one day, your future generation could look back and appreciate the risk that you took and be thankful to you to be able to live in a peaceful society? 

Then why are you a part of the very thing that is a threat to our peaceful society? You escaped poverty and persecution only to become a tool of a regime that might turn Sabah into your previous home land. You are helping corrupt people to stay in power and enabling racism to slowly spread it's tentacles to Sabah by voting for these people! One day, your descendants may find themselves in this situation, "Out of the frying pan, into the fire". The sacrifice that you took would be for nought. 


Why do you feel that you owe them? Look at your fellow compatriots languishing in the streets of Sabah. Aren't you sad or ashamed that you are a party to an administration that has poor record when it comes to Human Rights? 

Source : Unknown. Got this from an email. 

Two children suspected to be offsprings of illegal immigrants were abandoned by their parents at Kepayan Cooperative  recently.  Source :  Joseph Wilfred

Don't you pity the kids like in the pictures? Even if they are stateless, they are still human beings! What kind of a society are we if we don't cherish children? You, you are helping to perpetuate these nightmare. With two strokes, "X" in the wrong column, you condemned these children to a life of hell.


They were found in the morning sleeping next to a workshop.  Source : Joseph Wilfred

It's been almost two decades since you helped them into power. Are you going to condemn us all to another two decades of hell? Come next general election, think before you cast your vote. You owe them nothing by now. You and your compatriots have paid your dues and some have overpaid in fact, like the kids in the picture. Would you say ENOUGH! You didn't leave your country to this beautiful land just to help destroy it. 


Despite our love-hate (or maybe hate-hate) relationship, these Sabahans  decided that these children's well being is to be protected - Source : Joseph Wilfred

Lest our descendants including yours, might find themselves in a boat embarking on another perilous journey for a better live elsewhere. 

What will you do for your new country, my new Sabahan? 


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