Re-establish State Education Policy Under State Control - Jeffrey

Kota Kinabalu:  “The Sabah government should take the opportunity to review the State Education Policy and re-establish it under state control including providing better financial support of Chinese schools” said DatukDr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief.

The Bingkor assemblyman was asked to comment on the decision by the Sarawak government to build more technical schools under its control as well as the report of the philanthropist, Teo Han Tong, who had fulfilled a RM1 to RM1 donation pledge, and the support of the local Chinese community in funding the new RM1.4 million school building at the 84-year old SJK Kuok Ming school in Tawau.

“The decision of the Sarawak Chief Minister and his government in building more technical schools, inMukah, Kapit, Baram and Betong, in an effort to get more rural Sarawakian children to pursue technical education should be commended and lauded” added Dr. Jeffrey.

Similarly, the Sabah government should emulate their Sarawak counterparts and build moretechnical and vocational institutes and collegesandupgrade existingones to enhance the technical skills of Sabahans and at the same time to hasten the pace of creating technically skilled and techno-savvy Sabahan youths.

In the fast-paced modern world, job-seekers with better technical and technology skills not only stand a better chance of employment opportunities and career advancement but they will also contribute to and expedite the economic growth of Sabah.

Nowadays, even a store-keeper in a medium-sized industrial outfit will require computer knowledge and skills in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

By re-establishing education under Sabah control, the Sabah government can better manage and plan for the development of local human capital.   The recent calls to empower the Sabah Education Director emphasizes the need for education to be under state control once again than letting it flounder under the weight and distance of remote control by Malayan policy-makers and federal bureaucracy compounded by the lack of knowledge of local extenuating circumstances.

As part of the review, the Sabah government should also re-assess the financial requirements and needs of Chinese schools and not just leave the matter to the support of the Chinese and business communities.

The government should fund the construction of school buildings, libraries and computer classes and not just make token contributions at the end of the year especially during election campaign periods to fish for votes of the Chinese community.

This funding is more critical and justifiable in Sabah where in many Chinese schools the enrolment of non-Chinese students is more than one-third and in some instances where some students have to be turned away for lack of vacancies.

The Chinese and business communities can still play their part and with the additional funding from the Sabah government, the Chinese schools can focus more on educational teaching and development. 

After 50 years of Malaysia, education and human capital development in Sabah appears to have regressed and not progressed as it should have.  Instead of building and moulding towering Sabahans like in the good old days of British rule, the stories now are of school dropouts, indiscipline, truancy, poor command of basic languages and mother-tongue, lack of skills and of course control from the federal leading to poor administration and poor quality and bad planning and implementation of school projects.

The time has come for the Sabah government to seriously review and re-assess the education policy and administration in Sabah with the re-establishment of Sabah’s own Ministry of Education and a vision towards building towering Sabahans that will drive the growth of Sabah into a developed nation status.

Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan

Chairman, STAR Sabah

24 September 2013

Tanduo Intrusion Not Claim for Sabah Rights but Failure to Provide Security - Jeffrey

Kota Kinabalu:    “The Defence Minister’s attempt and excuse to link the recent Tanduo intrusion with the growing internal state nationalism to seek the restoration of State rights in Sabah as well as in Sarawak is a weak and feeble attempt to deflect from the failure of the federal government and its leaders to fulfil the promises and failure to provide the security to Sabah since 1963” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief in a follow-up statement released today.

The promises of the then Malayan leaders to provide security against the twin threats from Philippines and Indonesia as well as development were the fundamental basis to persuade and induce Sabah and Sarawak to form Malaysia in 1963.

These promises were the core of the untold stories told by Tan Sri Ghani Gilong and Tan Sri Majid Khan at the recent forum “The Formation of Malaysia – The Untold Story” organized by the Sabah Society.

The Tanduo intrusion did not only reveal the failure of the federal government in providing the security to Sabah and Sabahans.  The intrusion also revealed that the federal government and the federal departments and leaders from Malaya were the culprits in creating the insecurity and contributed largely to the intrusion.

The militant intruders were beneficiaries of the arming and training of the Southern Philippines/Mindanao insurgency by covert Malaysian operations with training grounds in the jungles of Tanduo/LahadDatu.   Many of these militants and their supporters including the intruders were given dubious Malaysian ICs and were members of Umno to the extent some of those killed in the Tanduo intrusion were buried in Keningau, Kudat and elsewhere in Sabah because their ICs show that they were alleged to be born in those places.   Many of those currently under detention under SOSMA for their roles in the Tanduo intrusion are members of Umno with some even holding leadership posts.

The revelations at the RCI also showed that the federal leaders and government departments were complicit in the issuance of ICs to unqualified foreigners, many obtained fraudulently by declaring to be born in Sabah when they were not.   Bare denials and selective memory and selective loss of memory by the federal leaders did not absolve these leaders and the federal government of their criminal acts and treason to Malaysia in general and Sabah in particular.   

These leaders may have denied the existence of “Project IC” or “Ops Durian Buruk” by playing with words, but,more importantly, they did not deny the existence of the issuance of dubious ICs to unqualified foreigners and put the blame only low rank civil servants who were merely doing their jobs and carrying out orders from their superiors.

The Tanduo intrusion was solely and squarely a Sulu claim by the Kiram descendants over Sabah as part of their ancestral inheritance together with alleged claims for non-payment of “allowances” for supporting and voting for Umno/BN and the displacement from lands that were promised and allotted to them and then “taken back” partly by the listing of Felda Global Ventures. 

Nothing about the Tanduo intrusion is about the claim of genuine Sabahans over Sabah rights and autonomy that were promises arising from Sabah and Sarawak agreeing to form Malaysia in 1963 and Sabah being an equal partner in the federation of Malaysia.   This historical fact is even now acknowledged by the Prime Minister himself and the Chief Minister of Sabah.

Is the Minister extending his threat over Sabah rights to include the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister?

Datuk Dr.Jeffrey Kitingan

Chairman, STAR Sabah

24September 2013