It has been confirmed by the local media. A white rooster sacrificed by Sabah strongman Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan on Malaysia Day, Sept 16, at the Batu Sumpah Peringatan (oath stone memorial) in Keningau is alive and kicking a month after being presumed dead.

The oath stone was put in place to commemorate the independence of Sabah on Aug 31, 1963 and its membership in the Federation of Malaysia sixteen days later on Sept 16, 1963. Then Federal Minister V Manickavasagam represented Kuala Lumpur.

NONE The rooster was sacrificed and its blood sprinkled on Sept 16 this year as part of a ritual offering. The tradition was witnessed by Kadazandusun priestesses (Bobohizans). John Gitang, the proud but sad owner of the rooster, picked up its limp body after the ceremony and took it home.

Gitang’s wife, not named in the various local media which ran the report this week, noticed the rooster was still alive when she was about to prepare it for the family dinner. She immediately abandoned any plans to make a meal of the bird “for fear that misfortune would befall her and her loved ones”.

She noticed that a part of the rooster’s neck, which had been cut for its blood during the sacrificial ceremony, had healed. Doctors in the know in Kota Kinabalu hold that the sacrificial cut on the rooster probably clotted over quickly and subsequently it was able to recover its strength despite the loss of blood. Even then they agree the incident is rather unusual.

NONE Jeffrey is not superstitious and, when contacted, pointed out that it was an ironic turn of events considering that the promises of the Malaysia Agreement had never been fulfilled in Sabah and Sarawak. “This can be taken as a reminder that the terms of the Malaysia Agreement need to be honoured,” said Jeffrey.

Last Saturday, Jeffrey ( right ) announced that he was not accepting nominations for the post of vice-president in the ongoing Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) elections. He reasoned that he was not exactly a spring chicken any longer and did not want to be distracted by party posts and positions from his unfinished business of a life time ... Sabah and Sarawak rights and autonomy under the Malaysia Agreement.

Lawyer Nilakrisna James, granddaughter of famed Sabah nationalist OKK Sedomon, said the oath stone is an eternal reminder to Malaysia of a solemn promise that Sabah formed the Federation with conditions.

Former PKR Beaufort division chief, Guandee Kohoi, who was present at the oath stone in Keningau on Sept 16, confessed that he was baffled that the sacrificial rooster was alive. Malaysiakini caught up with him on the sidelines of a PKR Malam Muhibbah (goodwill night) dinner function in Kota Kinabalu on Tuesday night.

“There was a lot of blood and the rooster was lying quite dead. I saw it because I was near it,” said Kohoi, who is vying for a place in the PKR supreme council. “I understand that it was lying on the kitchen table, quite dead, but started stirring when Mrs Gitang touched it. Then it suddenly stood up.”

Kohoi conceded that he could not explain why the rooster was still alive but doesn’t want to dwell on it. He has never come across a similar incident anywhere before. “I hope the rooster is spared from ending up on the dinner table,” said Kohoi. “It deserves to live and die a natural death.”

‘There are other spirits out there’

Dusun cultural activist Raymond Tombung Boin is not surprised that the rooster is still alive and adds tongue-in-cheek, “This proves that you cannot keep a good cock down”.

On a more serious note, he declares that “there are other spirits out there. The first of the Ten Commandants clearly states that ‘You shall have no other Gods before Me’ . . . ” he goes on to cite the New Testament: “What have you to do with darkness?”

NONE The slaughtering of the cock at Batu Sumpah, according to him, is a pagan ritual observed by the Roman Catholics. “They even believe in the spirit of the padi (Bambarayon) and that Huminodun, the sacrificed daughter of the Dusun God Kinoringan, actually existed.”

Tombung swears that the Monsopiad Centre in Kota Kinabalu has experienced so many incidents of hysteria “because of the curses coming from the cultural objects like the skulls and ancients weapons used in headhunting, etc”.

“A son of a friend of mine resigned from his job as security guard of the state museum after only one night of working there,” said Tombung. “He spent the whole night listening to the endless talking, crying and wailing at the museum.”

He opines that Roman Catholics, like other Christians, should get away from cultural practices, customs and traditions - honoured in the oath stone - which are actually against their faith “although the religion allows it”.

“The Church (RC) often teaches that pagan cultural practices are acceptable to it,” noted Tombung, who swears strictly by the Bible. “They even have Bobohizans doing their things in church in the past.”

The people in Penampang, continued Tombung, call in the Bobohizan after the Christian priest leaves their house after blessing it “to have a pagan blessing ceremony”.

The oath stone was put up in the Sabah interior after it was realised that the people found it difficult to grasp the idea of a written constitution and the 20 Points under which the state agreed to help form Malaysia.

The three tenets inscribed on the oath stone are that the Federation of Malaysia would honour freedom of religion and that there would be no state religion in Sabah, that the state government would hold authority over all land in the Sabah, and native customs and practices would forever be respected and preserved by the federal government. In return, the people pledged loyalty to the Federation of Malaysia.

The stone itself was found in a nearby river and the plaque containing the three tenets produced in Singapore. The task fell on then-district officer Richard Lind who went on to become state secretary.