Power-sharing in the Barisan Nasional is mere window-dressing to fill up positions and to give a picture of credibility for the Umno regime, said Star Sabah chairperson Jeffrey Kitingan.

“There is no real power sharing within the Barisan Nasional as everything is being decided by Umno and imposed on other BN component parties. It is just domination, domination and more domination by Umno,” he said.

“This can be clearly seen when Prime Minister (and Umno President) Najib Abdul Razak came out of Umno supreme council meetings and announced major government policies decided at the Umno supreme council meeting without even having to refer to the other BN parties.

“It is a stark reality that the other BN components are powerless and have no say whatsoever,” said Jeffrey, who was once a member of a number of parties which are members of the Barisan Nasional.

“If the situation is bad and reaching breaking-point for the BN components and other races in the peninsula, it is worse in the case of the Borneo states, particularly Sabah,” he said in a statement emailed to Malaysiakini .

Jeffrey was commenting on a statement made by former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad who wanted adjustments to be made on power-sharing within the Barisan Nasional in order to woo Malaysians who had deserted the ruling coalition in GE13.

“There is no real power-sharing, just domination, domination and more domination by Umno, and the domination has gone to the extent of twisting the facts of history and the formation of Malaysia, even the age and independence of Malaysia.   

“Another form of domination is the use of the government agencies and security apparatus for their political purposes inching closer and closer to making Malaysia a police state,” he said, pointing out that much of this domination happened during the time of Mahathir and the father of the present prime minister.    

“It has become worse during the tenure of the present prime minister despite his hollow and meaningless slogan ‘1Malaysia’ which has been rendered ‘1Melayu’ as evidenced at the recent Umno general assembly.

“It is only appropriate for Mahathir to initiate the ending of this Umno/Malaya hegemony and for the present prime minister to implement it.   

“Only then will true peace and harmony prevail in the peninsula and equal partnership prevails between Malaya and the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.

‘Opportunity to redeem past mistakes’

He said that Mahathir should take the opportunity to redeem some of his past mistakes by rectifying the Umno hegemony over the other races and the Umno/Malayan hegemony over Sabah and Sarawak instead of insincere statements to hoodwink the people to continue the Umno stranglehold on the country,

Reminding  Malaysians on the formation of Malaysia, Jeffrey said that the original intention of forming the federation of Malaysia was to be a political association between Malaya, Singapore and the three Borneo territories of North Borneo (now Sabah), Sarawak and Brunei.  

“After 50 years, it is no longer a political association, more a racial, religious hegemony by Umno/Malaya.

“Fortunately for Brunei, they pulled out at the last minute, “he said.

“The founding fathers of Malaysia from Sabah and Sarawak never intended for Sabah and Sarawak to be the 12th and 13th states in Malaysia, equal to the likes of Perlis, Malacca or Selangor.

“After having passed its 50 years mark, Malaysia today is not the federation of Malaysia that is supposed to be. Although Malaysians share its uniqueness in diversity in race, religion and culture, the political reality is essentially Umno/Malay hegemony in the peninsula and Umno/Malaya hegemony over Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.