Storm brewing in Usbo over link with BN

By Luke Rintod

KOTA KINABALU: Trouble is brewing in the underbellies of the United Sabah Bajau Organisation (Usbo) over its leadership's move to affiliate with Barisan Nasional.

While Usbo president Salleh Said is pushing for the tie-up, rumblings among the ranks in the party tell otherwise. Some of its long-time members are uneasy and don't trust Umno.

They fear that they will be once again be 'manipulated' by Chief Minister Musa Aman who they claimed is two-faced and see the rising Bajau-Suluk movement as a threat to his position in Sabah.

Some 13.4% of Sabah population is Bajau-Suluk and this is only the registered citizenry.

Bajau's resentment of Musa is deep-seated. A proud, loyalist community with a strong sense of kinship, the Bajaus sees Musa as an 'outsider' and have an elephant's memory of his misdeeds against them.

Historically, Bajaus have played a significant role in Sabah politics with four of the state's former chief ministers - Mustapha Harun, Sakaran Dandai, Salleh Said Keruak and Osu Sukam - having been of Bajau-descent.

But since Musa assumed power, ties with the community have been strained especially so after he dropped several key Bajau leaders from his state political lineup.

But the Bajaus have a 'son' in Federal Rural Development Minister and Umno vice-president Shafie Apdal who has been working his magic on Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

Najib's magic

In March FMT reported that Salleh had been given the influential post of Kota Belud Umno division chief and was seen to be 'slowly easing' back into mainstream politics after Musa dropped him as a BN candidate in the last election. Earlier he was was appointed science and technology advisor to Musa.

Political insiders at the time described Salleh's sudden return to the epicentre of Sabah politics as "an interesting development" and noted Prime Minister Najib's hand in the orchestration.

Salleh's return, they noted, was an attempt to heal wounds with Usbo after stalwarts Pandikar Amin Mulia and Amir Kahar, the son of late Tun Mustapha Datu Harun, who were not included in the list of BN candidates in the last election.

Salleh himself is the son of the late Tun Muhammad Said Keruak, a former chief minister and Sabah’s seventh governor. Still the wounds that are healing are limited to the upper echeleons of Usbo.

When Musa announced earlier this week that Sabah Umno had superseeded Johor (Umno's bastion) in terms of members, the rank-and-file saw red.

The immediate reaction was: "He is talking about us (Usbo)... how did they (Umno) get so many members"

Dictator Salleh

The permeating uneasiness also stems from Salleh's dictatorial style.

"There has been no discussion or consensus on the matter... it's just Salleh and a few politically hungry leaders who are engineering this move," said one insider.

Salleh declared last week that Usbo was planning to become an affiliate member of BN.

The party was re-engineering itself to reflect the BN-spirit.

But a matter of such importance, said Usbo insiders, should be put to its members or an EGM to decide.

The dissenting faction, albeit faceless for now, want the organisation to be independent.

Yet another group within Usbo said they want to see other options on the table, including "affiliating" with Pakatan Rakyat or Zaid Ibrahim's so-called new party.

Meanwhile Salleh, when prodded on members' unease over being affiliated to BN and his dictatorial style, simply said: "I have not been informed....let us wait and see ...this is an NGO bah!"

Usbo has a provision in its constitution that allows the grouping associate to link itself with any organisation that shares its objectives, be it the BN or Pakatan.

Usbo is said to represent 12 sub-ethnic groups comprising the Iranun, Sama, Suluk, Binadan or Bannaran, Ubian, Sama Delaut, Sibutu, Sikubung, Simunul, Samal, Yakan and Jama Mapun communities. Together they are the second largest ethnic group in Sabah.