No wonder Mahathir is afraid to face Sabahans

Published on: Sunday, May 06, 2018

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By SS
IT seems likely that Tun Dr Mahathir is skipping Sabah in his campaigning because he won’t be able to explain the many controversial decisions he made during his prime ministership, especially against Sabah just because the PBS Government was Christian-led.

Among them were also the Federal Government’s acquiring of Labuan and declaring it a Federal Territory in 1984, especially whether he had requested then Chief Minister Tan Sri Harris Salleh to do so.

Sometimes it can be difficult to please when Kl leaders make a request, even half-heartedly.

After Berjaya’s fall due to Labuan there have been the unexplained surge in illegal immigrants getting documents following PBS’ pullout from the BN on the eve of the 1990 general elections, an action that Dr Mahathir then labelled as “a stab in the back”. Nobody knows the exact number of “new Malaysians” who were issued documents but some estimates have been in excess of half million or even close to a million.

Overnight the once majority indigenous groups were outnumbered.

Then there was the controversial rotation of the chief minister post every two years among component leaders which was not provided for in the Sabah State Constitution. The Chief Minister rotation saw six Chief Ministers heading the state administration within a matter of 10 years and the state coffers reduced to its lowest levels due to the signing of many lop-sided deals that continued to haunt the State administration for years to come, the rotation was discontinued following the 2004 general elections when incumbent Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman led the state to a convincing victory, Musa’s first election victory as CM.

One good thing though is that ever since he became CM, Musa has been focusing his energies on stabilising state revenue, resulting in Sabah now having reserves of some RM4billion compared to only RM100million generally during the rotation era.

One must also not forget that it was under Mahathir’s watch that the Bumiputra Finance and a host of other scandals surfaced with the media unable to report them due to the Official Secrets Act (OSA).

It was also a sad period for the judiciary because he sacked six of the nation’s role model judges.

I wonder after having destroyed Sabah and various institutions, just how much he can undo if he sits in the PM’s chair again.

SS