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A CIVIL society organisation has issued a sharp warning to voters in Sabah, urging them not to return UMNO to power in Kinabatangan and Lamag, arguing that the party’s long period of rule left behind a record of economic failure, weakened institutions and entrenched corruption.
In a statement issued by the Change Advocate Movement of Sabah (CAMOS), President Daniel John Jambun said the state could not afford to repeat what it described as past mistakes, pointing to the collapse of Sabah Forest Industries and the failure of the Pitas Prawn Farm as stark reminders of misgovernance.
Sabah Forest Industries, once one of the state’s largest industrial assets, collapsed into bankruptcy after years of mismanagement.
The Pitas Prawn Farm, promoted as a flagship rural development initiative, ended in what the group described as a financial disaster.
According to the organisation, these episodes were not isolated, but reflected deeper structural problems during decades of UMNO and Barisan Nasional rule.
The group argued that corruption had become systemic rather than exceptional, citing years marked by abuse of state land and natural resources, cronyism, political patronage, widespread financial leakages and a lack of accountability.
It said communities such as Kinabatangan and Lamag did not fail on their own, but were “failed by the system UMNO built”.
The statement also raised concerns over ongoing demands by Sabah and Sarawak for additional parliamentary seats, cautioning that an increase in numbers would be meaningless if those seats were controlled by parties based in Peninsular Malaysia.
“What is the use of more seats if they are won by Malaya-based parties?” the group asked, warning that such an outcome would leave Sabah with greater numerical representation but diminished influence, symbolic rather than substantive representation, and state rights that remain “negotiable and deferrable”.
The organisation said political arrangements between parties, including decisions by the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah government to stand down in certain contests, did not bind voters or erase historical experience.
It stressed that past governance failures could not be overlooked simply because of present-day political calculations.
“Kinabatangan and Lamag do not owe UMNO another chance,” the statement said, adding that voters were owed “truth, memory, and accountability”.
Addressing Sabahans directly, the group posed a pointed question: “How many times must Sabah repeat the same mistake before we admit the lesson has not been learned?”
It argued that Sabah could not move forward by restoring power to a party it accused of normalising corruption, weakening state institutions, bankrupting strategic state assets, betraying the 1963 Malaysia Agreement through Project IC, and failing the state over 24 years of rule.
The statement concluded with a call to voters to reject UMNO in Kinabatangan and Lamag, stressing that the appeal was not driven by hostility but by historical awareness and civic responsibility. - January 5, 2025