Fellow Sabahans...Let's Analyse Ourselves Post GE2008

Fellow Sabahans, why do you think we voted as we did in the General Elections of 2008? Can we do ourselves a favour? Let's look at ourselves long and hard. What happened to us? Have we turned into cowards? Why are we putting up with the bread crumbs that the BN Kuala Lumpur and their stooges in Kota Kinabalu are throwing out at us?

Since the election results of 8th March '08 polling, I couldn't stop trying to figure out what happened to the true fighting spirit that is Sabahans. What happened to the tough, defiant Sabahans that once easily overthrew a government overnight? We fought alone a losing battle for nearly a decade. Did we lost that tough Sabahan spirit? Have we no hope left?

I simply couldn't stop trying to figure out why. Why did we vote in the Election 2008 to return a State BN spineless government that only do the bidding of their KL masters. At the smallest issue that we face in Sabah, the State BN leaders keep running to Kuala Lumpur to kowtow and get the approval of their BN masters. Just to form a State Cabinet, even as we speak, our State leaders have to run to KL to get big daddy's approval. Isn't that pitiful?

So what happened to us when we voted as we did last weekend? Are we so politically oblivious to the happenings in the rest of the country? Are we that politically stupid? Don't we care what can happen to our judicial system? Don't we care what will happen to our children and their children because we allow the PTIs to economically take over Sabah? Are we going to allow the federal BN extract every drop of our precious oil reserves and continue to get back peanuts from them? We are pitifully happy with the 5% royalty we get from our own oil? Until when? Petronas is controlling the 95%. Until when are we going to wake up to the fact that we are being robbed a full 95% of our oil revenue? On the first day of government, the Barisan Alternatif in Penang is already going to ask for money from state oil from Petronas to fund Penang's new bridge project:

"PENANG, Malaysia (Reuters) - Malaysia's opposition-held state of Penang will lobby the prime minister to use cash from state oil firm Petronas to fund a new $940 million bridge project, Penang's new chief minister said on Tuesday..."

What about us? We have been giving away our black gold to Petronas for years, billions and billions worth that could have build Sabah into the most developed and beautiful State in Malaysia. That black gold should have been ours because it is from beneath this Land Below the Wind. Petronas have gotten billions from Sabah. And what do we Sabahans have in return? We should be nearly as rich as the King of Brunei. Again, I ask, what do Sabahans have? What we have is the POOREST BN-ruled State in Malaysia! That's what Sabah is...the POOREST state in the whole of Malaysia! We also have a 10-year old who committed suicide by hanging himself because he was too ashamed of being poor anymore, thinking that if he died, his mother would have one less mouth to feed and a little bit more extra to take care of her medical problem. Have we forgotten that? What kind of human beings are we turning into?! If a 10 year old can think so selflessly, what does that make the rest of us?

So, help me here. Pray, tell me what happened the last time we voted just this last weekend. I have problem coming up with our good excuses. Some that I could think of:

1. We are too afraid to vote back the opposition because we don't want to go back to that 'black period' in the past when we were an opposition and were denied developments that should have been our right too (from the human rights' perspective).
2. We are too afraid to freely speak our minds because the BN government can just throw us in jail under ISA.
3. We are too afraid to speak because we can lose our jobs, then who will take care of our family, pay our bills? Hence, it's not worth speaking up. I am already surviving hand to mouth as it is.
   
4. We are too afraid and too coward to act because the past BN Government had successfully planted in all of us the fear of speaking up and taking action.
5. ... (What else...I am running out of excuses here...we must just be a bunch of frightened Sabahans)

Please help me out here. What else? What other excuses can we give for voting as we did last Saturday? Did the cash that ALL the BN candidates handed out on polling day did the trick? Did we trade our children's future for a mere RM20, some RM50, Rm100, others plan tickets and hotel accommodation? Votes buying were so rampant last Saturday. All the BN candidates were not even afraid to do it openly. Some villages were partying and giving money to voters while ceramah-ing for the whole 10 days prior to polling. Have we stooped this low?

I didn't know that analyzing ourselves can be hard. I guess it's hard because we don't even know who or what we are anymore. Maybe, we have all become afraid, cowardly, corrupted, selfish (because we only think of ourselves and not of our children), with no principles and backbone. We keep referring back to the BN masters in KL for every little thing that concerns our future. Again, have we stooped this low? Guess, it has all become management-by-example now. Are we all a reflection of our leaders or is it the other way around?

Right now, I am not particularly proud of being a Sabahan. What are we?! What excuse can we give for being the chicken and disunited Sabahans that we are this moment?