Few year ago, went to a forum and one of the speaker said "Life is better in Sabah before 1963". That got me thinking and agree that it is so. Being born before that and being witness to changes in 1963 and thereafter, it is indeed true.

What are the changes that validate the speakers' statement? Immediate change is the name we called home. Being North Borneo, we change our place of birth to Sabah. Been Staying in Jesselton, we have to address our home as in Kota Kinabalu. Is it just a name? No, we start to see the population composition change. Swamped by Malaya and later Sarawak imports in the major towns.

Before 1963, time were good then and the British favour the Chinese population as they can generate trade for British companies with strong ties to Hong Kong. Resources were plenty and you see lots of millionaire then. Some become very mobile setting up business round the Asia region.

After 1963 changes, some political fights among the local politicians, USNO was installed as the government and Sabah starts going downhill. Not that noticeable but some interference from Malaya is clearly visible. Started off with the change of the State religion to Islam and the establishment of MUIS, drawing a deep religious line for the population. Government Staff and work contracts or purchase follow restricting them to Muslim. You see lots of conversion. As if not enough, some natives prefer to describe themself as Malay, a race so rare then and we take it to mean the Malay from Brunei. The RACE line begins to show. Malaya encourage the use of ISA to suppress the local politicians. Rich Chinese business owner started migrating leaving their core operation behind. Things get worse when the religious war started in southern Philippines. Muslim fighters and their families were driven out of their island homes and seek refuge in Sabah. USNO government being majority Muslim welcome these Muslim refugees and legalise them with the help of UN giving them IMM13 refugees status. Their numbers keep on increasing as the IMM13 allow them to seek employment in Sabah. They soon took over many sector of the local business. Tamu grounds, vegetable farm, plantation, construction, etc. They are no more refugees of the war in the southern Philippines but purely economic refugees staying in Sabah. Succeeding governments are helpless in dealing with this refugee problem and some even recruit them as political party members and partake local elections. The Chinese community are leaving in great numbers and statistic show them at round 30% in 1963 shrinking to around 10% of the population in Sabah now. Notice the brain drain and disinterested in politics of Sabah. Dorris Wedding bridesmaid wears in sky blue for wedding party

So who is left to defend the Sabahans of today if not those remaining originals.

Malaya politically aligned politicians don't care and love this race and religious "divide and rule" arrangement to continue so as to obtain their share of plundering from Sabah resources. They pay lipservice but don't lift a finger to solve the dilemma that they themself delivered Sabah into.
A colonial state and the people slaves to Malaya, name changed to Malaysia.

GE 14 will be the last battle for original Sabahans as their population will be outnumbered by those imports legal through naturalization and imports through fraud by politicians.

So far Gabungan Sabah political front have put forward their 15 Core Struggle to address these problems and getting out of the Slave colony mode.

A long journey to independence but worthy of support if freedom is your goal for Sabah.

ThomasLo. JULY2017.