Sabah leaders should emulate outgoing Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud who purportedly told Sarawak leaders to keep Umno out of the state, said State Reform Party (Star) Sabah chairperson Jeffrey Kitingan.

It is said the veteran politician had cautioned that Umno’s brand of racially divisive politics is harmful to Sarawak’s  multi-religious and multi-racial population.

Praising Taib for this, Jeffrey ( right ) said the chief minister "has set the benchmark for patriots of Sabah and Sarawak to follow".

"He is a true Sarawak/Borneo patriot," he added.

Jeffrey asked if Sabah BN leaders would prove to be brave Borneo patriots looking after the interests of Sabah and Sabahans or remain as proxies of Kuala Lumpur?

"The Umno Baru of today is not the old Umno of Tunku Abdul Rahman's days. The virtues, principles and benevolence of the past leaders are no longer in existence.

"The nation-building with emphasis on peace, harmony and inclusiveness of the old Umno has been replaced with people-dividing and nation-wrecking based on racist, religious bigotry, intolerance and hatred overtones, strategies and policies.  

"The Umno leaders have turned Malaysia into a police-state dictatorial regime with an all-powerful and all-conquering attitude," he added.   

Jeffrey also noted that Umno Baru leaders had transformed Malaysia, a model multi-racial, multi-religious country, into a racist and supremacist nation on the brink of bankruptcy with an external debt of about RM600 billion.

"Sabah is made worse off by being internally colonised and the entry of Umno into Sabah with the granting of dubious ICs and MyKads have turned Sabah into an alien state controlled by Umno with the aid of voters-for-hire," he added.

Giving credit where it is due, Jeffrey said, Sarawak has been spared the problems of Sabah by the single-mindedness and single-handedness of the outgoing chief minister.