Dompok won’t be allowed to fade away

 

March 5, 2014

UPKO to reward departing president with honorary title as party prepares for future without Dompok in charge - Borneo Insider

PENAMPANG: United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Oragnisation (Upko) is planning to appoint Bernard Dompok as the party’s Honorary President when he step down as president on March 21.
Deputy president Wilfred Madius Tangau, who will assumed the post of acting president on the same day, said he has made the proposal to the party’s supreme council as this will be the right to do for a leader who had served Upko well.
Speaking to the press after Dompok’s announcement that he was stepping down as president here today, Tangau pointed out that the departing president is only stepping down from his party leadership position.
“To me, he still be our top leader. Already, there are very sensible proposals, that the Supreme Council invoke Article 63 (i) and (ii) of our party constitution, and make him Upko Honorary President.”
“I for one will personally make the proposal when the Supreme Council next meets. It is only right to do so,” Tangau said. He explained Artilce 63(i) and (ii) of that the party provides for the appointment of an honorary president.
“Words cannot express how sad we all are that he is stepping down. I believe the majority of Upko leaders, what more the members, will find it tough to digest, if they can understand or believe it at all. Such reaction speaks volume about him as a person, but even more as Upko leader. “
“I also know that despite all his great achievements, he will continue to conquer new heights. His vision and work rate is second to none. And Upko will be with him all the way,” Tangau said.
Tangau said that as acting president he would continue Upko’s tradition of speaking up for the people of Sabah and he would work even harder than before, “to stay true north”.
“I never dreamt to be in this position. But if am given the responsibility, I will draw strength from the support of all the members. And especially the proven guiding hands of Dompok,” he said.
Dompok has meanwhile urged party members to rally behind Tangau, calling him the right person to lead the party into the future.
He said members must show the Tuaran MP the same support he enjoyed as he had all the ingredients required “to continue the work all of us have done together over the 20 years”.
The party’s founder diplomatically manoeuvred around questions about senior party leader, Ewon Ebin, who was not at the press conference at his Nabalu Puru Lodge near here that attended by party supreme council members.
Asked why Ebin was absent, Dompok said he understood that the former was busy with his ministerial duties in Kuala Lumpur.
But questions remain over how those who supported the Ranau MP in a bitter tussle for the party’s deputy president post last year will adjust to the new hierarchy in the party.
Tangau won the election by a razor thin margin and Ebin now has no position in the party though he is a Federal Minister.
Dompok said he saw positives in the party election last year as it was the first time was hotly-contested and showed that there was keen debate and diverging views which was healthy for the party.
The event, he said, could be viewed as a new learning curve for the party for a vigorous and healthy culture in party elections.
“The winner in any party election must be the party itself. I thank all party leaders for the maturity shown in the aftermath of the election. We have passed the test, Dompok said.
The departing UPKO leader also spoke of the party’s contribution to trying to find a solution to the perennial problem of illegal immigrant in Sabah which had been acknowledged by Prime Minister Najib Razak during his visit here last year.
He pointed out that Upko had highlighted the development needs of Sabah and the conspicuous imbalance between Sabah and the rest of the country in many aspects of national life, not only physical but economic, educational, and religious.
“We have to do so with courage, sometimes to the point of becoming irritants to our colleagues but these are realities of political life. There are instances when we need to be pragmatic. But at the end of the day, your compass must always be pointing true north. Otherwise you will never reach your destination,” Dompok said.
On his retirement plans, Dompok said he would remain active in the work of several non-governmental organisations as well as in Upko when necessary or appropriate. -BI

Dompok setting the stage to exit?

 

March 2, 2014

 

This articles is from Borneo Insider

His deputy Wilfred Tangau is taking on more of his boss’s responsibilities as the former federal minister takes a back seat on party matters.

Dompok

KOTA KINABALU: All eyes are on Bernard Dompok, the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) president, ever since he started delegating duties to the party’s second-in-command, Wilfred Tangau.
Will he step down as party president? Is he planning a career change? Is he disgusted with Barisan Nasional’s increasingly divisive brand of politics? What’s his next move?
Having lost in two general elections Dompok seems to be fighting a lonely battle to keep the party relevant and in the forefront of Sabahans demands for a more equitable federation.
It’s been a long hard struggle. First he lost his Moyog state seat in 1999 when he was Sabah Chief Minister and in last year’s general election, he was unseated by PKR’s Darrel Leiking from the Penampang parliamentary seat. He was then the  Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister.
Another blow to his leadership was when his choice of Tuaran MP Wilfred Madius Tangau join the Federal Cabinet went unheeded. Instead Ranau MP Ewon Ebin was made Science, Technology and Innovation Minister.
In the party election last year, Tangau then secretary general defeated Ebin for the deputy president’s post.
With Dompok’s eminent retirement, the focus is now on Tangau and whether there will be a leadership tussle in the party.
Dompok has already shown that he favours Tangau and delegated his powers to the Tuaran MP when he sent him to attend the Barisan Nasional supreme council meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
Tangau was accompanied by secretary general Donald Mojuntin to the meeting chaired by the national coalition chairman and Prime Minister Najib Razak.
“Transition plan appears to be on the cards … he has to leave at some point because what else is there for him to do,“ said a party insider. Dompok also visited Ranau, his old parliamentary constituency.
Upko will be holding meeting later this month were Dompok is expected to delegate powers again to Tangau to take charge the party. Dompok is said to be travelling to Taiwan to attend to some personal matters.
Speculation is also rife that eventually the party leadership under Tangau will push for another federal cabinet post or even replace Ebin should the Prime Minister reshuffled his cabinet. – BI

Upko flaunts Dompok’s aide for Sepanggar

Joseph Bingkasan of Free Malaysia Today

| November 21, 2012

Umno, PBS, LDP and PBRS have staked a claim on the Sepanggar parliamentary seat but Upko says it is theirs.

 

KOTA KINABALU: The United Pasok Momogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) is cranking up the pressure on the state Barisan Nasional leadership to contest the Sepanggar MP seat for the coalition in the coming general election.

In a less than subtle theatrics, Sepanggar Upko chief Steven Kutai offered the constituency to party president Bernard Dompok in place of their rising star Albert Bingkasan who is said to be eyeing the seat.

Dompok, who is Federal Plantation Industry and Commodities Minister, as expected, declined, saying that it was best to field a candidate from the Sepanggar Upko division and he would be defending his Penampang seat.

The byplay gave the party general convention that was held on Sunday the opportunity to unanimously adopt a motion to be presented to the state BN leadership for its leader to contest the Sepanggar seat.

Kutai, who spoke at the one-day convention, told the over 1,000 delegates that Sepanggar had been a BN stronghold with Upko having the largest number of members in the constituency, which encompasses the state seats of Inanam and Karambunai, compared to other BN components.

The two state seats make up the Sepanggar parliamentary seat. Inanam has 12 polling districts and Karambunai 11. The total number of voters, according to the latest electoral rolls, is 47,836.

Half of the polling districts are considered KDM (KadazanDusun Murut) areas.

The seat was won by BN through Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) in the 2004 and 2008 general elections but the Kadazandusun majority constituency is now in opposition hands after SAPP pulled out from BN on Sept 17, 2008.

Incumbent MP Eric Majimbun is deputy president of the party. He polled 16,884 votes against PKR’s Mohd Ibrahim Abdullah 5,423 while Edward Ewol Mujie of DAP obtained 3,709 votes.

Though Kutai, as party chief in Sepanggar, should be the candidate by convention, he has said he would not be standing in the coming election and is proposing his deputy Bingkasan as the nominee for the post.

Everyone wants Sepanggar

Bingkasan, 48, who initially studied for the priesthood and worked for a few years in the media industry, is one of Dompok’s senior aides in Parliament and in the ministry. He is married to Nelly Henry James and they have four children.

Addressing the delegates at its closing, the would-be freshman MP said the resolution adopted for Upko to contest Sepanggar was in line with the resolution by Upko 13th triennial delegates conference last year.

Dompok brushed aside murmurs that the party was not following BN protocol by overtly grasping for seats.

“It is not wrong to request because we are in a democracy. Requests are the norm when it is election time and there are times when even seats which are held by a component party will also be requested by another party.

“For instance, Upko seats that we have in our pocket are being requested for. But it is up to the BN central leadership to decide which party should get the seats, not only in Sepanggar but also in the other constituencies,” he said.

The other BN component parties to have laid claim to the constituency are Umno, PBS, LDP and PBRS.

Can you expect thieves to arrest themselves?’

 

By Joseph Bingkasan of Free Malaysia Today

| November 21, 2012

A Sabah-based activist has accused Upko of pussyfooting around the illegal immigrant issue.

 

KOTA KINABALU: The author of a book ‘Lest We Forget’ that chronicled the ‘acquisition’ of Sabah by Umno-linked authorities, who re-engineered the demographics of the state, is surprised that local leaders are now downplaying the facts.

Expressing his concern, Dr Chong Eng Leong said he was worried that even a hardline local Barisan Nasional coalition component was backing away from the controversial issue after years of championing it.

Chong is particularly incensed that state assembly representative Donald Mojuntin, the son of the late Peter Mojuntin who is lionised as a defender of Sabah’s rights, was now choosing to limit the fallout from a widely acknowledged illegal act.

He accused Mojuntin, from the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) party, who was formerly a parliamentarian of manipulating for personal reasons a pivotal issue in state and national politics.

Mojuntin has also riled independents with his conciliatory stand on other sensitive Sabah-centric issues notably the date of the formation of Malaysia.

Chong said Mojuntin’s recent statement “let’s not waste time and effort to over-politicise it” when speaking about the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah, was self-serving.

“I am sure Donald (Mojuntin) and Upko know that hundreds of thousands of foreign migrants are in the Sabah electoral rolls – they decide which political party to govern us. Isn’t this problem a political issue, Donald?” asked Chong who is now with PKR and known for his stance on immigration reform.

He said the coalition partners appeared confused over their stand on the issue with Upko president Bernard Dompok once saying that internal upheavals and the strained relationship between state and federal governments had hampered efforts to resolve the problem.

Chong’s book gives a detailed insight of the audacious re-creation of Sabah’s ethnic and religious makeup of the state to tilt the balance of political power in favour of the ruling BN coalition and Umno in particular.

He pointed out that though the Umno-led coalition had been governing Sabah since 1994, repeated calls by Sabah BN members for a royal inquiry since 1996 had not been entertained until this year and even then reluctantly and with limitations.

“Isn’t this political? Donald (Mojuntin) also said the RCI has no power nor manpower to take action on its findings and recommendations as this belongs to relevant bodies like police, immigration and the NRD,” noted Chong.

Immigration, police, NRD involved

Chong said that by stating this, Mojuntin was conveniently ignoring the fact that during in the Likas election petition hearing in 1999, witnesses testified under oath that the meetings, chaired by the late Megat Junid, the deputy home minister at the time, discussed how ICs could be given to foreigners in Sabah and these meetings “involved immigration, NRD and top guns from Bukit Aman”.

“Can you expect the thieves to arrest themselves?

“My research on this issue since the late 90’s is to let us Sabahans (be) aware of this treacherous deed done by the federal government – Dompok knew the modus operandi as he had heard the testimonies from public and briefings by NRD when he was the chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity in 2006.”

He said that Dompok is now urging the public to come forward and help the RCI to set things right but asked since he himself knew the modus operandi, would Dompok come forward to testify.

“I don’t know if I am one of the 48 witnesses identified by the RCI but if not I shall come forward come Jan 14, 2013,” said Chong.

He added that since former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had admitted he did grant citizenship to foreign migrants after decades of silence when challenged,”he must be called if his name is not on the list of 48″.

“The RCI has the power to call anyone to its chamber and even interrogate, if need be,” he emphasised.

Chong said it was hard to believe that the inquiry would lead anywhere as it was the BN government that started this issuance of ICs and citizenship to foreigners for decades through falsified documents and was still doing it now in spite of the RCI in progress.

“Who is going to believe that BN wants to solve this treasonous action?

“Dompok, Donald, and all of you in Upko, if you still vote for BN – the next BN federal government will for sure continue issue MyKad and citizenship to the millions of foreigners already in Sabah now and mind you when the next electoral boundaries are redrawn you shall kiss good-bye to your so-called struggle for your people.

“And forever we Sabahans will become refugees in our own land,” he warned

Dompok confirms `pulling out of BN' was discussed.

PENAMPANG: United Pasokmomogun KadazanDusun Murut Organization (UPKO) leaders had discussed the issue of leaving Barisan Nasional (BN).

According to its president, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, the issue had been discussed and deliberated by UPKO’s Supreme Council during its meeting but it was decided that the party would stay in BN.

Dompok said this when asked to comment on the claims by former UPKO leaders Datuk Seri Panglima Wilfred Bumburing and Datuk Maijol Mahap that the party was on the verge of quitting BN.

Speaking to reporters after officiating UPKO Penampang and Kota Kinabalu divisions joint delegates convention here yesterday, Dompok when asked to confirm the allegations said: “That is very easy? There have been people who wanted to talk about these things so we put it to the supreme council and it was deliberated.

“The majority voice was for us to go along with BN because of what BN has been doing as far as the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the presence of illegal immigrants in Sabah and all those things.

“So I can confirm that it was discussed but the party decided not to go along these lines,” he said.

When asked if that meant the former UPKO leaders were not being accurate in their statements to the media, the Penampang member of parliament replied: “That cannot be true because there was a party meeting (and) we put it up. There was nothing for us to hide (and) I think everybody knows we had a meeting.”

Last week, former UPKO deputy president Datuk Seri Panglima Wilfred Bumburing and former party vice president Datuk Maijol Mahap claimed that the party had been on the verge of leaving BN.

Maijol also claimed that the exit did not happen because Prime Minister cum BN chairman Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak promised to make the announcement on the setting up of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the illegal immigrant issue and extraordinary increase in Sabah population.

“For the record, initially UPKO leaders have decided and were prepared to bring UPKO out of BN and join PR. In fact immediately before the function on 29th July 2012, there were suggestions coming from several UPKO leaders requesting Bumburing and his group to postpone their intended date to quit BN-UPKO.

“They eventually agreed to let Bumburing go first while UPKO leaders sort out some technicalities. However, all these notions suddenly changed when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib promised to announce the formation of RCI which would be made on August 11, 2012,” Maijol said.

His statement was refuted by UPKO treasurer general Datuk Dr Marcus Mojigoh who was of the opinion that Maijol was inventing all kinds of stories to justify their action of leaving BN.

“As an UPKO leader, I never missed any discussion pertaining to party matters and I never heard nor any intention of the party to leave BN. As far as I can remember Maijol himself has never said he will leave BN.

“During one of our supreme council meetings, one of our members did suggest that the party should leave BN not because of RCI but on overall matters. That proposal was debated and was defeated and thrown out,” Marcus claimed.

Read more: HERE http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/11/05/we-discussed-leaving-bn-dompok/#ixzz2BJHWpXjT

It was true Upko wanted to pull out from the Government

‘Upko debated ditching BN’

By Joseph Bingkasan of Free Malaysia Today

|                       

Former Upko deputy president Wilfred Bumburing revealed details of secret meetings held with party president Bernard Dompok over Upko's status in BN.

 

 

KOTA KINABALU: Senior leaders of United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) met early this year to discuss pulling out from Barisan Nasional, a former top party leader said today.

Wilfred Mojilip Bumburing, the party’s former deputy president who resigned recently, disclosed that party leaders discussed the possibility of consenting to the `silent’ wishes of the party’s grassroots members for Upko to leave the ruling coalition government.

Bumburing, who resigned from Upko and as BN head for Tuaran on July 29 and now heads the opposition-friendly Angkatan Perubahan Sabah (APS), said he had met with Upko president Bernard Dompok at least eight times to discuss the matter.

The Tuaran MP revealed the secret meetings to clear up allegations by certain BN leaders especially those from Upko that he quit the party because he was not going to be fielded to defend his seat in the coming general elections was not true.

“There is no truth in these allegations. In fact prior to July 29, I and a few other Upko leaders officially declared our decision to leave BN,” he said.

He said Dompok, a Minister in Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s federal cabinet, was well aware of the widespread dissatisfaction in the party over its position as a prop for the Umno-led coalition government.

“On at least on three of the (eight) occasions, Bernard (Dompok) insisted I stay put in Upko and personally asked me to stand and defend the Tuaran parliamentary seat for BN,” Bumburing said in a statement posted in APS’s facebook page.

“However, by then I have already made the decision to leave Upko and BN,” he pointed out, adding that another allegation making the rounds that he quit because he lost the divisional chairman post in the election of Upko Tuaran divisional committee members was also BN slander.

He disclosed that prior to the divisional meeting in 2011, he was told by the nomination committee that he had won the chairman’s post uncontested but he rejected the nomination and asked the committee to conduct another nomination exercise.

He said he also refused to be nominated as BN candidate for Tuaran constituency.

“The whole issue of me and my colleagues in quitting BN is the failure by the BN federal government to resolve the issues of illegal immigrants and the extraordinary population increase in Sabah over the last two decades,” he said.

No respect for Sabah

But Bumburing, a former deputy chief minister, said the disagreement with the BN federal and state government went beyond that of just the issue of illegal immigrants.

Apart from faulting the BN government for ignoring native customary rights over land with thousands of natives displaced by or trapped in forest reserves that have been placed under the Forest Management Units (FMU) which were threatening their very livelihood, he said the BN government had clearly shown itself to be biased.

The failure of the state government to fairly distribute welfare aid to all deserving such assistance clearly demonstrated this, he said.

Adding to the grievances felt by Sabahans, he said, was the fact that BN leaders at federal level had little respect for the guarantees made in the Malaysia Agreement of 1963 when Sabah joined in the formation of Malaysia.

Guarantees that should have protected the rights of the natives of Sabah had almost vanished, he said, adding that while natives in the interior of Sabah were hard pressed to get birth certificates and obtain identity cards for their children, illegal immigrants were easily obtaining citizenship documents.

BN members still fighting over SAPP seats

 

By Joseph Bingkasan of Free Malaysia Today

| October 30, 2012

          

The Sepanggar parliamentary seat which BN component parties are tussling over will be an easy win as there are 3,000 registered postal voters.

 

KOTA KINABALU: Barisan Nasional coalition members are scrambling to claim constituencies won by their former colleague Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) in the last general election.

Leaders of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), United Pasok Mompogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko), Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS), Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and BN’s backbone Umno have all thrown their hats in the ring for their members to contest the MP seats of Sepanggar, Tawau and the state seats of Likas and Luyang.

SAPP, now in the opposition holds the two parliamentary seats through party deputy president Eric Majimbun (Sepanggar) and vice president Chua Soon Bui (Tawau) while Liew Teck Chan and Melanie Chia are the state assembly representatives for Likas and Luyang.

All four had won the seats on BN ticket but the party led by former chief minister Yong Teck Lee quit the coalition on Sept 7, 2008.

PBS president Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan has announced that his party has applied to BN chairman, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, to register the mixed constituency of Sepanggar seat under PBS.

Pairin is basing the party’s claim ahead of other BN coalition aspirants on the shaky premise that PBS enjoys huge support in the constituency.

SAPP proved their contention a fallacy in the Nov 9, 1999 election. The constituency was then known as Gaya. Yong defeated PBS candidate Johnny Goh Chin Lok, now the Inanam assemblyman, 15,315 votes to 11,198 votes. Third candidate Hamzah Abdullah of PAS only managed 729 votes.

However, PBS is this time also in a skirmish with Upko head Bernard Dompok, Pairin’s archival for the Kadazandusun political crown.

Dompok who is the Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister announced the party’s claim to the Sepanggar also on the basis of enjoying huge support in the constituency.

The last time Upko’s strength was tested was in the March, 1999 election where its candidate Christine Van Houten, a former civil servant, was defeated in the state constituency of Inanam. The constituency together with Karambunai is within the Sepanggar parliamentary constituency.

BN minnows, PBRS, headed by Joseph Kurup and LDP whose president Liew Vui Kiong is Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department have also established bases in Sepanggar but unlike PBS, Upko and Umno, they are not active in the area.

Easier seat for BN

Umno, the main party in the the Sabah BN coalition, can be said to have the upper hand in any tussle among coalition members to contest Sepanggar.

Its divisional head Jumat Idris, is seen as a close aide of Chief Minister Musa Aman, the Sabah BN chief. Idris is also the BN chairman for the constituency.

Incumbent Majimbun is rumoured to be all set to move into state politics by contesting in his home constituency of Inanam.

Majimbun, who is SAPP deputy president, however also disclosed that his party would nevertheless field a candidate to defend Sepanggar.

The Sepanggar MP seat is said to be one of the easier seats for the BN to wrest from the opposition irrespective of who in the BN coalition gets the nod to be the candidate.

Political pundits say the electoral balance is tipped against the opposition here given that there are about 3,000 postal votes registered in Sepanggar.

According to them, based on past election results, postal voters by and large have always proved to be ‘government supporters’.

This is more so in Sepanggar where there is a naval base as it has also been seen in the past that constituencies with a large military presence have always elected a BN candidate.

In the last general election, BN contested in all the 25 MP and 60 state seats. It was a landslide victory for the coalition who only lost the Kota Kinabalu parliamentary and Sri Tanjong state seat to DAP.

However a series of subsequent defections right up to a month ago has allowed the opposition to make further in-roads in the BN’s ‘fixed-deposit’ state.

Meanwhile, apart from the seats now held by SAPP, seat allocation for the Sabah BN members has almost been settled, according to Dompok.

Opening Upko Beaufort division delegate conference over the weekend, he said there was no more problem in seats allocation as all the component parties had been informed of the seats they will be contesting in the elections.

‘We’re united,’ says KDM lawyer

By Joseph Bingkasan in Free Malaysia Today

| October 22, 2012

There is no disunity among the KadazanDusuns but what exists are Barisan Nasional leaders who want to divide and rule.

KOTA KINABALU: Darell Leiking, a young Kadazandusun lawyer from Penampang, believes his community can be a force to be reckoned with in the coming general elections and an indication of this is coming from Barisan Nasional leaders who are worried the tide has turned against them ahead of the 13th general election.
“We are not disunited racially or religiously. We are united. Tagging the community as disunited because they do not see eye to eye in political ideology is a false notion,” said the man who wants to take his community in a new political direction.
The PKR national deputy secretary-general and supreme council member is among leaders in Sabah heading the Pakatan Rakyat coalition challenge against the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition in Penampang in the impending general election.
Penampang is considered part of the heartland of the Kadazandusuns and wresting the seat from the BN would be a body blow for the ruling coalition.
Addressing concerns that his community is split into too many factions, he said the blame can be placed at the door of a few political leaders who were once united under a common political banner but went their separate ways to stay in power.
In a chance meeting at a coffee shop last week, the 41-year-old UK-trained lawyer confided that his community is in fact as united as it was in the past about championing Sabah’s rights as a partner in the formation of Malaysia and not just one of the 13 states in the federation as it is now.
Touted as a possible PKR candidate for the Penampang MP seat, he said he is not concerned about who is finally selected by the coalition.
“PKR is hopeful to represent Pakatan Rakyat for Penampang. However, my personal position is that my division and I will support any candidate from any of our (Pakatan) partners should PKR not be given this seat,” he said .
Whoever is chosen will up against a formidable foe in the form of current Penampang MP is Federal Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Bernard Dompok, who is the president of the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko).

Political leaders to blame
Leiking does not see this as a big hurdle even though Pakatan is tapping the same Kadazandusuns who voted in favour of the BN in the last election.
His argument is that most of the ruling coalition and their party members today were once united under a single political banner (Parti Bersatu Sabah) to fight for Sabah’s rights.
He said though PBS leader Joseph Pairin Kitingan and his former colleagues in the party like Joseph Kurup and Dompok are now presidents of different political parties and have split the Kadazandusun vote, they cannot say the community is solidly behind them.
He accused the entrenched crop of political leaders as being out of touch with the community.
Leiking said Kadazandusun leaders must take full responsibility for the community’s political displacement and weaker position as they had ignored the spirit of 1985 that united the people of Sabah purely to prolong their political life.
“Their two-dozen or so years as elected representatives is just a wee bit too long for us. It’s a political fact,” he said of the claimed burgeoning support for the opposition.
“Imagine 27 years of political decisions being made for us and little to show how we’ve benefitted.
“Some of these politicians are now blaming us for being divided but these same leaders have even had the audacity to redefine the Kadazandusuns by religion.
“We are Kadazans and Dusuns regardless of our beliefs and this we should all defend so that we shall never be displaced. We must embrace that our race is unique with many faiths and with a special place as natives of Sabah.
“No religion should ever divide our race,” he said.
Sabahans now bolder
The problem, he said, was the mutual respect that was always present in Sabah was slowly being eroded by the failure of politicians who were either ignorant or afraid to challenge one-sided policies that had taken a toll on the social makeup of the state.
“We should take responsibility to seek help and find solutions to those issues. It is reciprocal and I believe when we do this, the mutual respect will be reasserted,” he said.
Leiking also noted that Sabahans were also no longer afraid to shout out their disappointment over the failure to fulfil promises pledged during the formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.
He said, people had forgotten that while Sabahans have changed the state government several times, the federal government had remained the same and this had handicapped them since the formation of Malaysia.
“The prime minister may have changed but the regime remains the same. Our Sabah government may have changed on four occasions but the political leaders and players remain the same,” he noted.
Pakatan, he said, has given voters an opportunity for change at the very top.
“This is why it is obvious and we must take part … we cannot miss this opportunity in the general elections.
“What we need now is to have that same desire for change but the only difference is, there is now a national party that we can converge this force of change so that we will honour that desire that we have been deprived off for so long.”
Leiking disagreed with the idea that only a ‘local based party’ or ‘parti tempatan’ was the best choice to lead Sabah.
“Myself and many others from Sabah are members of PKR or DAP or PAS (Pakatan’s component parties). It would be insulting to say that being in a national-based party, one would be any less a Sabahan. I am in PKR and I am a Sabahan.
“As a national leader in the party, I also make decisions on the party matters concerning a member or division in Johor, Malacca, Selangor and other states. That is progress in this partnership.”

Dompok: Leave The Herald alone

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said the Home Affairs Ministry should let the court decide instead of continuing to harass the Catholic weekly, Herald, for using the word “Allah” in its latest publication.

Stating that it was an unnecessary controversy, he said the Home Affairs Ministry should just lay the matter to rest because it is waiting for hearing in the court.

He was speaking to Sabah journalists after officiating at the presentation ceremony of the UPSR 2008 excellence award, uniform assistance and Year Six “Aku Janji” pledge at SK St Theresa, Inobong, Penampang near Kota Kinabalu Friday.

“Lately, the Ministry of Home Affairs has been harassing the Herald to such an extent that they have to go to the court and (now) waiting for hearing,” he said, adding that based on comments, including by lawyers, on the issue, the Herald should be allowed to publish as they have done before pending the outcome of the Court.

“It is not for the Ministry of Home Affairs to pre-empt the decision of the court,” said Dompok who is also the President of the United Pasok Momogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (UPKO).

He was responding to the reports quoting Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar warning the Herald as “the show of defiance could cause conflict and anger among other races in the country”.

Syed Hamid also said that “if anything happens, then don’t put the blame on us” and that he would refer the matter to the Ministry’s legal unit.

“There’s no reason for the Home Affairs Ministry to kelam kabut (get all excited) to look at this. I think they are using very strong language (against the Herald),” said Dompok.

He added that the Herald, is just a small organisation having a circulation of just about 14,000 a week out of the Christian population of about two million and slightly more than a million Catholics in the country.

“It is only being sold in churches so I don’t see how it can confuse the people,” he said, adding that it had also complied with the requirement of the Ministry to stamp the word “Terhad” (limited) on every edition.

Dompok said the matter would have arisen during the Premiership of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad “but I think wisdom prevail”.

He said the usage of the word “Allah” should be viewed from the historical perspective since the terminology had came about when Bahasa Malaysia was used by the people even before Malaysia (existed).

He said it was the language used by the people of the Borneo territories (as the) Melayu tacit lingua franca, even though English was used in most schools but there were also some schools that were conducted in Malay at that time.

“So religion developed along the line of communications and in this particular village (Kampung Inobong) for instance I didn’t have occasion to use the terminology because sermons and proceedings in church are conducted in Kadazan and “Allah” in Kadazan is “Kinoingan”.

“I went to school in La Salle in Kota Kinabalu, when I go to church its in English so God is God,” he said.

However, Dompok said in rural areas where the predominance of Bahasa Malaysia came about, the usage of “Allah” became more pronounced, especially after the importation of Bible written in Indonesian language, which refers to God as “Allah”.

He said the terminology is widely used in Indonesia and also in Arab countries by Christians.

“So it is a universal terminology use in the Christian world when they are praying in their vernacular language. There is no reason for the Home Ministry to continue harassing the Catholic Herald,” he said.

Based on reports, Dompok said it was “as though the Herald was trampling on the toes of everybody while in fact I feel the Ministry of Home Affairs is using a sledge hammer to crack a nut in full force to silence the Herald”.

“We are living in a country that practices democracy, freedom of religion and that the first tenet of the Rukun Negara is Believe in God. People want to believe is God so I think they should be allowed to so,” he said.

Dompok also could not believed that people were even suggesting disallowing worship by other religions in Malay.

“I said how can that be? Bahasa Malaysia does not belong to the Malays alone, this is the language of all Malaysians, your and my language.

“So I feel if there is indeed objection to that then perhaps its time for us to look for a new national language so that there would not be “confusion” among Malaysians,” he said.

To a question, Dompok said he had spoken to Home Minister and brought up the issue in the Cabinet.

“In fact it was the day after the (Federal) Cabinet meeting that they gave back the Herald the license to publish in Malay,” he said.

Dompok: Where is the RM1 billion promised for Sabah?

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok told the Press in Donggongon, Penampang Sabah that there was no sign yet of the RM1 billion special allocation for Sabah that was announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi last year.

"To my knowledge the commitment of RM1 billion (for the State) has not started to be implemented yet," he said Saturday.

"I think as far as the projects are concerned it has already been finalised by the State authorities for submission to the Federal Government," he added.

He said this when asked how much of the RM1 billion special allocation for Sabah that was announced by Abdullah in May last year during a visit to the State, had actually materialised.

The allocation was meant for the expenditure of several people-centric development programmes urgently needed in the State.

In regards to the RM1 million allocation for Sabah Members of Parliament for the development of their respective constituencies Dompok, who is also the Penampang MP said: "My understanding is that it will start to be implemented this year."

On another matter, Dompok said the Borneonisation of the civil service here was an ongoing exercise and that the Government was looking at the best ways to achieve it without sacrificing the efficiency and implementation of government projects.

"Of course our priority is to give the opportunity for Sabahans to implement government policies, apart from proving that they are capable as their West Malaysian counterpartsÉthere is no reason why (the) Borneonisation (of the federal civil service here) cannot be further accelerated."

When asked if there was a time frame for it to be achieved, he said there was none for this particular exercise.

He pointed out the appointment of a Sabahan as Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Vice Chancellor, National Registration Department State Director as well as the State's Financial Controller as proof that the matter had been taken to highest level of decision-making.

"However, I have to say that this does not mean that those from West Malaysia are less able than those from the State who have been promoted.
We want officers recruited from Sabah to gain experience and move up the ladder in the country's administration."

As for claims that Sabahans were not interested to serve in the diplomatic corps, he said he did not know why it was so when the Government actually wanted them.

Dompok was in Donggongon township to hand over Chinese New Year greeting cards to business operators as well as the public together with Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister's Department-cum-Kapayan Assemblyman, Datuk Edward Khoo Keok Khai.

He later officiated at a lion's eye-dotting ceremony there together with Khoo and other leaders including Moyog assemblyman, Donald Peter Mojuntin and Penampang District Officer, William Sampil, among others.

Dompok says no Act cast in stone

"There is no Act that is cast in stone," Minister in the Prime Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said today.

He was referring to what Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman's Aman told the State Legislative Assembly on Thursday (Nov 20, 2008). Musa, who is also Sabah Finance Minister, said that Sabah could not seek a revision of the five per cent petroleum royalty because it was not provided for in the 1976 Petroleum Agreement signed between the State and Federal Governments.

Dompok, who is also UPKO president, did not agree with Musa. He said it was not impossible to amend statues and therefore not impossible to review the Sabah five per cent petroleum royalty. Although Sabah produce oil, under the 1976 agreement this State known as the Land Below the Wind is only paid five per cent royalty.

UPKO (United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun and Murut Organisation) , a component of the ruling Barisan Nasional had been vocal in its request to the Federal Government to increase the annual oil royalty to 20 per cent.

Dompok said it was up to the government of the day to decide what it wanted based from request arising from the people who wanted to see changes.

"But if out tell me that laws cannot be changed, then that cannot be true. It is not possible to amend the statues," he said. He said when the issue was recommended (by him) to the Federal Cabinet, there has been no outright decision to reject it.

"As far as I can see from the Cabinet's discussion, there had not been any definite decision. I hope the Federal Government will consider it in the future," Dompok said

SAPP to table motion Monday

Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) will table a motion to adjourn scheduled agenda of the State Legislative Assembly tomorrow (Monday) to debate on the proposed 500km RM1.5 billion Kimanis-Bintulu gas pipeline.

SAPP which pulled out of Barisan Nasional on Sept 17, 2008 now has two members seated in the Opposition side - Datuk Liew Teck Chan (Likas) and Melanie Chia (Luyang). Two others Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah (Tanjong Papat) and Au Kam Wah (Elopura) are still seated in the Government side as they had announced no longer in the SAPP's fold. They are reported to have submitted an application to register a new political party.

The following is reproduced from the SAPP's website, which explained why the party need to table the motion.

Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) - the ex-BN member in the opposition ranks since Sept 17 - wants to debate the proposed 500 km RM 1.5 billion Kimanis-Bintulu gas pipeline in the State Legislative Assembly sitting.

The party’s stand is based on the power of the state to deny access and transit through state land for the trans-shipment of Sabah’s gas resources.

The motion for the debate was moved under Standing Order No. 23 (1) of the Sabah State Legislative Assembly. It was handed to state speaker Juhar Mahiriddin by two Sapp members, Datuk Liew Teck Chan (Likas) and Melanie Chia (Luyang) last week.

Liew, who disclosed the motion for the debate, said that "there are many questions surrounding the proposed project".

"These need to be properly and satisfactorily answered as it involved public interest," said Liew who is also Sapp deputy president.

"Whatever natural resources belong to the state, including natural gas, should be utilised by the state.

"Why must we have our very own natural gas siphoned off all the way to Bintulu for processing? Why can’t we extract and process it locally for our own use?"asked Liew.

Liew said that the announcements by both the federal and state governments on the gas pipeline to Bintulu, the proposed petrochemical complex, oil refinery and a 300 MW gas-fired power plant in Kimanis, are less than convincing, "since they are a bundle of contradictions".

"Where are we going to get the excess gas for the gas power plant and the petrochemical complex in the state when all our natural gas will be shipped to Bintulu?" asked Liew." What happened to the prime minister’s May 31 pledge?"

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi pledged at a gathering of BN leaders in Kota Kinabalu on May 31 that the controversial project would be scrapped.

Petronas however, apparently advised by Abdullah’s nemesis and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, refused to go along with the lame duck premier’s directive.

It has started work unannounced on the gas landing facility in Kimanis. The outgoing Badawi was forced by waiting pressmen to admit defeat on the sidelines of the recent Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) annual meet without any apologies or explanations.

Petronas’s apparent recalcitrance has put Badawi in a spot with Sabahans and placed additional pressure on federal cabinet members from Sabah.

It had been reported that UPKO chief Tan Sri Bernard Giluk Dompok "did not mince his words" at last Friday’s federal cabinet meeting.

However, he was persuaded to go along with the proposed gas pipeline project on the promise that Petronas would build a full-fledged petrochemical complex and oil refinery in Sabah.

He wrested additional concessions i.e. that only excess gas from Sabah would be shipped to Sarawak and the construction of the full-fledged petrochemical complex and oil refinery would be carried out simultaneously with the gas pipeline project.

One issue is whether Sabah or Sarawak comes first in the gas equation: Will surplus Sabah gas be used for Sabah or Sarawak. Sabahans think that only the surplus gas will be for Sabah and not the other way around.

This means Sarawak comes first despite Friday’s cabinet decision which stipulated only Sabah’s surplus will be directed to Sarawak.

Among others, Kalabakan MP (Umno) Datuk Abdul Ghapur Salleh continues to throw cold water on the cabinet decision.

Former Labuan MP (Umno) Datuk Suhaili Abdul Rahman is firmly against Sabah gas going to Sarawak, while PKR (Parti Keadilan Rakyat) Sabah Chief Datuk Dr Jefffrey Kitingan sees the gas pipeline as "an act of sabotage of the Sabah economy and is tantamount to an act of bullying".

Sabah has long complained that it has nothing to show for its huge reserves of fast-depleting oil and gas reserves except for a methanol plant in Labuan which is a federally controlled territory.
Meanwhile, even non-oil states like Pahang, Johore, Kedah and Malacca have various oil and gas industry-related activities.

Besides the four non-oil states with various oil and gas industry-related activities, the oil states of Terengganu and Sarawak both have a wide range of activities utilising their hydrocarbon resources.

UPKO Stays Put In BN

KOTA KINABALU, Nov 7 (Bernama) - Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said on Friday he was happy with the federal cabinet's decision to create a petrochemical industry in Sabah, following the objection to the construction of a gas pipeline from Kimanis to Bintulu by the people of Sabah.

In this context, factories linked to the gas and petrochemical industry would also be built, he said in a statement today.

Dompok said that after he had raised up the issue at the Cabinet meeting in Putrajaya today, a decision was reached to continue with the construction of the gas pipeline from Kimanis to Bintulu, but only the excess gas would be piped to Sarawak.

"The federal cabinet has now agreed to create a full-fledged petrochemical industry in Sabah using gas and oil from Sabah while only the excess gas would be channelled to Sarawak because the construction of the gas pipeline from Kimanis to Bintulu would be continued."

"On behalf of UPKO (United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation) and the people of Sabah, I thank the federal government for its concern," said Dompok, who is also president of UPKO.

He said the resolution would certainly diversify Sabah's economic activity and the erection of the factories for the petrochemical industry would provide a boost and catalyst to the Sabah Development Corridor.

"Finally, Sabah, one of only three oil and gas producing states in Malaysia, can now be active in the gas and oil downstream industries."

The simultaneous construction of the petrochemical factories and gas pipeline could help Sabah, which had been lagging especially in the gas and oil industry, to progress and enjoy the benefits derived from the country's development," he added.

Dompok: The effect is not little

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok (pix)said Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) decision to ditch Barisan Nasional on Sept 17, 2008 was not a `little matter.'

"As far as we (UPKO) are concerned, the effect is not `little', said the UPKO president.

On whether the SAPP's decision would effect affect the national coalition government, Dompok said,"Well I am not going to be arrogant to say that we are not affected at all when any member of our family ditches us."

Whether SAPP is a nuisance to BN, Dompok said." If people follow blindly what big component parties dictate, it is not good, not only for the BN but also for the country."

My Say:

Dompok had been consistence on UPKO's support to SAPP not to be sacked from BN after Yong announced that his two Members of Parliament would support a motion of no confidence to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The UPKO's stand will be interesting in the coming days now that SAPP had voluntarily pulled out from BN.

Sept 16 - Public Holiday In Sabah

While the five states controlled by the Opposition in Peninsula Malaysia are planning to declare Sept 16 a Public Holiday to celebrate the formation of Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963, Sabah has all this while been observing that date a Public Holiday, also to celebrate the official Birthday of the Governor (Yang Dipertua Negeri).

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said his party UPKO fully supported the call by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for Sept 16 to be declared a National Public Holiday.

Speaking to the Press in Kota Kinabalu today, the UPKO president said the matter had been discussed in the Federal Cabinet but nothing came out of it to date. Dompok said he would bring up the matter to the Cabinet again.

But in Kuala Lumpur, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had shot down the call by the Penang's Chief Minister, saying that the Federal Government had no intention to make Sept 16 a National Public Holiday.

Umno wants Putatan

Sabah Umno Secretary Datuk Haji Yahya Hussin has again express the party's strong interest for the Putatan parliamentary seat currently held by another Barisan Nasional (BN) party, UPKO.

Opening Umno branches conferences at Dewan Raya Putatan Saturday, Yahya said Umno should had been given the seat to contest in the March 8, 2008 general elections.

"We (Umno) had made known our intention to represent BN in Putatan MP seat in the last election but it went to the hand of others. They disagreed but we (Umno) worked very hard and in th end BN win the seat," he said.


Yahya, who is also Sabah Deputy Chief Minister, said Umno actually wanted its sacrifice to be recognised by other BN component parties.

He said other BN component parties should reciprocate the huge contribution by Umno Putatan but `at times our sacrifices have gone unnoticed and even our sincerity questioned.'

"Its like there is a case of `kacang lupakan kulit (one forgetting its origin) because sometiomes they question what is the Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) so we really hope that in thhe next general election, Putatan will be given to Ymno," Yahya said.

My Say:

For the record UPKO's Datuk Dr Marcus Makin Mojigoh won Putatan polling 12,766 votes defeating Saukinah Yussof of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) who garnered 6,485 votes while an Independent candidate Ramzah Ahmad lost his deposit after getting only 850 votes.

This is Mojigoh's second term as Putatan MP.

With a huge majority of 6,283 votes will UPKO headed by Tan Sri Bernard Giluk Dompok `surrender' Putatan to Umno in the 13th general elections?

Opposition supports Dompok

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Vice President Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan fully supported UPKO's call for the Federal Government to give Sabah its five per cent share of the State's oil royalty.

He said the proposal voiced by UPKO's president and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok should be supported as an immediate and first step towards giving justice back to Sabah.

Dr Jeffrey said the Federal Government should not be receiving the five per cent royalty of oil sourced from Sabah as it is receiving all the tax revenue of more than 40 per cent as well as of Petronas' profit.

Bravo! Dompok

Dompok: Give federal royalty to Sabah

KOTA KINABALU: Upko president Tan Sri Bernard Dompok has suggested that the five per cent royalty the Federal Government receives from Petronas for oil extracted from Sabah be given back to the state.

He said it would be a wise move in response to the persistent call by Sabah leaders for an increase in oil royalty.

"If we want to give Sabah more money, this is the easiest thing to do for now."

He said changing the agreement with Petronas in which Sabah and the Federal Government would each receive a five per cent oil royalty would be a hassle.

Dompok said he agreed with the principle that Sabah should get more money for its oil.

"To Sabahans, that is the right thing to do."

Dompok, who is Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, was speaking after attending a seminar on oil and gas development in Sabah organised by the party's Youth wing.

He said developing the oil and gas industry in Sabah was important and could be the anchor of the Sabah Development Corridor. He added the industry would would provide job opportunities for the people.

He also said the Sabah-Sarawak gas pipeline project to the Petronas LNG complex in Bintulu would not allow Sabahans to be involved in the industry.

He suggested that the government develop the Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal in Kimanis instead.

He said he was made to understand that the gas pipeline project was to be halted but according to reports, Petronas would proceed with the RM390 million project.

"I think the Sabah government should insist that the pipeline be stopped. It is in Sabah's interests to look at the bigger picture."

Dompok said he had spoken to the prime minister and Petronas and was waiting for their response.

This story is from HERE