Sabah politician sees fire bombings as the end game

The federal government can longer bank on solid returns from the Christian electoral fixed deposits in Sabah and Sarawak in the wake of yesterday’s arson attacks on churches in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya.

“There are parallels in the church fire-bombings and the temple demolishing that preceded the 2008 political tsunami in peninsular Malaysia,” said Jeffrey Kitingan, the Pakatan Rakyat head for the two states, in an exclusive interview yesterday evening with Malaysiakini in Kota Kinabalu.

Jeffrey is also convinced that Chinese voters, not just the Christians, and many god-fearing Muslims as well in East Malaysia will abandon Umno in the next General Elections.
He dismisses BN (Barisan Nasional) which, according to him, has ceased to exist following the emergence of the Pakatan Rakyat.

“It is bad enough that the Customs are sitting on our Bahasa Indonesia language Bibles for using the word Allah,” said Jeffrey.He added that the arson incidents could erase all doubts among the community.

Jeffrey, also responsible for strategies in Sabah and Sarawak as PKR (Parti Keadilan Rakyat) national vice-president, thinks that even the debate in the courts over the term Allah had not been enough so far to budge the rural vote bank from Umno’s vice-like grip.

“I am more a man of the intellect rather than the heart and emotions,” he confessed.

“But even I was emotionally moved beyond words when I first saw the graphic pictures of the church fire-bombings in peninsular Malaysia. Tears welled up in my eyes for the first time since my detention under the ISA (Internal Security Act).”

Hindraf example for E. Malayasia

The Sabah strongman thinks those pictures will have a devastating effect in the rural heartland of East Malaysia.

He does not deny that local politicians will not be averse to embellishing stories of the incidents, actual and rumoured, with their own versions.

This is what happened among Hindraf (Hindu Rights Action Front) activists in the wake of temple demolishing, he added. “Indian voters were stirred in the 67 parliamentary seats where they are in some numbers.”

Jeffrey (left) does not think the arson attacks were isolated incidents which could be excused as the work of “some cowards or fanatics”.

He’s convinced the Umno Government’s handling of the Allah issue was the inspiration and the clearest evidence that “the party is up to no good in the emerging new politics of the nation”.

“I think that there are certain elements in Umno who have this thinking that when it comes to the crunch, they must be willing to employ strong-arm tactics to remain in power,” said Jeffrey.

“This means deliberately embarking on a campaign of intimidation and instilling fear to beat others into submission.”

“It is ironic that people in peninsular Malaysia would demonstrate over us in far away Sabah and Sarawak using the term Allah for God in our Bible and prayers,” said Jeffrey.

And God had rested for three centuries….

“Allah is not an issue among the Christian community in peninsular Malaysia but among us on this side of the South China Sea. By what right do people in the peninsular decide, after 300 years, what we call our God?”

He cited a surah (chapter 29, verse 46) from the Holy Quran: “. . . and do not debate with the people of the book (Christians and Jews) except with decorum, except those who are belligerent among them, and say to them we believe in the books/scriptures that had been brought to us and unto thee; my God and your God is one; and only to Him do we submit.”

He gives this as an example of Islam the Faith as practiced by fellow-PR partner PAS unlike the Islam the Politics propagated by Umno.

Jeffrey reiterated that the demonstrations and the church fire-bombings were politically-motivated and well-organised acts “designed to intimidate the people of Sabah and Sarawak into total submission”.

Prime Minister Najib and his cousin Hishammudin (Home Minister) were literally encouraging the demonstrators, he added.

Raw deal sentiment growing stronger

“It’s becoming increasingly clear with each passing year to Sabah and Sarawak that this Malaysia has been a raw deal for us,” said Jeffrey.

“It’s not just peninsular Malaysian intimidation of us over the Allah issue. We are in fact coming to the tail-end of nearly 50 years of neo-colonialist exploitation.”

The veteran Sabah politician, long noted for his campaign for autonomy and state rights, sees Umno as being unable to redeem itself after having inherited the mantle of power from the departing British colonialists.

“After 50 years, surely we have to ask ourselves whether we still want a party which is no better than the British colonialists. Where is our freedom?” asked Jeffrey.

“They indulge in divide-and-rule tactics like the British, treat us like slaves, are trying to introduce racial polarization a la Malaya and exploit our resources without developing our states.”

Jeffrey points out that he does not want to “sound like a broken record stuck in the same groove” by reciting the litany of Federal Government transgressions in Sabah and Sarawak besides the Allah issue.

“Mark my words. Umno is bent on systematically creating political chaos in the country to save itself out of the hole it had dug itself into over the years,” warned Jeffrey.

“Everyone is beginning to see the hollowness of Prime Minister Najib’s so-called 1Malaysia