BRAVO! GOOD SENSE PREVAILED.

In a recent interview by Off the Edge Edin Khoo and Jason Tan, Datuk Seri Anwar had this to say over the choice of Pakatan Rakyat’s Ketua Negeri of Sabah and Sarawak:

“Of course we stand to be criticized. I have taken a lot of criticism both within and without, but to suggest that there is a disaster….I don’t share that view at all. Well, we’ll see and I believe that finally most of the leaders, including those in Sabah, will agree. WHO SAYS THAT JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE KETUA NEGERI IT MEANS YOU AUTOMATICALLY BECOME THE CM OR MB OF A NEGERI?” (emphasis in caps mine)

Anwar Ibrahim said Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan has been appointed vice-president in charge of Sabah and Sarawak with responsibility for drawing up a master plan to develop the two states, and to prepare for the next general election.

"I recognise the unique circumstances under which Sabah and Sarawak joined the federation. As a nation it is regrettable that we have at times failed to live up to the spirit and ideals of the Malaysia Agreement of 1963 which outlined the rights of Sabah and Sarawak," Anwar told Malaysiakini.

Sabah and Sarawak in 1963 joined Peninsula Malaysia in the belief that the Malaysia Agreement which outlined the rights of Sabah and Sarawak would be sacred and thus upheld. Small erosions of the Agreement, were easily erased with some sweeteners. The UMNO/BN machinery worked overtime as admitted by then Minister of Information, Mohd. Rahmat in his memoirs, to unscrupulously cow dissenters into submission. The landslide control of the people of Sabah and Sarawak was such that  it left the Agreement coffined and buried  when MyKads were given to destitute illegal immigrants from Kalimantan and Philippines, whilst some in the Peninsula died waiting to be recognized as citizens. And yet the original citizens of Sabah and Sarawak laid the red carpet for the BN with 25 and 31 Parliamentary seats respectively. This is akin to cattle being led by the nose for the “slaughter and annihilation of their rights”.

It is therefore the PR’s key objectives to restore the dignity and position of Sabah and Sarawak and uplift from poverty its diverse peoples. He urged “all parties to turn the page on divisiveness, pettiness and work together with a renewed commitment to unity and justice."

Jeffrey Kitingan is said to have told Malaysiakini that that Anwar has gone to "extraordinary lengths" to achieve a deal to unify disputatious factions in Sabah.
 
A relieved Jeffery further volunteered that Anwar  unified the opposition in preparation for the last general election and now he has done the same within one critical wing of his own party that was threatened with needless division.

Several insurmountable hurdles have been cleared but I see one last hurdle. The President of PKR, Wan Aziza was quoted to have said that PKR is one of the weaker links in the coalition. This one last hurdle is PKR itself. Whilst the leopard cannot change its spots,  the exUMNOs who are now in PKR must try to get rid of the SCENT OF UMNO that lingers irritatingly. Anwar has to watch his own people like a hawk before the last hurdle can be cleared. As such, all of us who do not understand and those who pretend that they do understand Sabah and Sarawak, to step aside or get out of the way to let them do their thing. The less we act like Big Brothers, the better to effect change for a new Malaysia.

I wish PR well in their convention because the word IMPOSSIBLE can only be found in the dictionary of fools.