COMMENT “ Cakap cakap keluar Malaysia ” or rumours of secession of the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak from the Malaysian federation have been festering for a long while like an open wound that just refuses to heal. 
 
It is so serious that the authorities are threatening to use draconian measures to stifle unhappy and dissenting voices. 
 
Just two days ago ACP Hashim Justin, the intelligence coordination officer of the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) warned of using the Sedition Act on anyone instigating such secession. He added that the “mastermind" could face the death penalty for waging war against the King but he did not indicate who the mastermind might just be.
 
Not only is this sledgehammer approach disproportionate to the problem, but it is more alarming that it should come from Esscom, which should be focussing on protecting locals from armed intrusions from Southern Philippines off the east coast  of the Land Below the Wind.
 
No doubt Putrajaya indeed views such cakap-cakap as serious. 
 
Seccession talks seditious
 
On the eve of the 57th Merdeka celebrations which also coincides with Sabah’s independence 51 years ago, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin (left) warned that secession talks must end.
 
“It is seditious in nature,“ he was quoted as saying while opening an international festival in Sipitang in Sabah, a sleepy town near the Sarawak border. 
 
He warned that such secessionist voices should not be tolerated and “stringent action would be taken against them for trying to create such a situation.”
 
Two days later, Home Minister Zahid Hamidi revealed that police have identified those pushing secession. 
 
“Sure we have identified them. You just wait, we will announce,” he was reported as saying after opening the Segambut Umno division meeting in Kuala Lumpur.
 
The Sabah government takes serious notice of such talks too. Just last month, Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly Salleh Keruak (left) highlighted the threats from secessionist chats on social media and wanted the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and police to take “serious action.”
 
Former Chief Minister Yong Teck Lee scoffed at his threat and said Salleh was grossly mistaken. 
 
He was quoted as saying, “Many of these Sabah netizens boldly post their full names and photos. They consider themselves as patriots not traitors.”
 
Yong said the best way to act on secession talk is to solve the grievances of Sabahans over the failure of the federal government to fulfil the spirit of the 1963 Malaysia Agreement which formed the basis for the formation of Malaysia.
 
Meanwhile, Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman, who is also the chairman of the state security committee, in a statement recently warned, “ Henti cakap-cakap sabah keluar Malaysia  (Stop the secession talk)”. 
 
The state police commissioner, Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman had also disclosed that a special unit has been set up to investigate seditious statements calling for Sabah and Sarawak to pull out of the federation.
 
Behind closed doors
 
Despite such warnings, there’s nothing to stop discussions about the discontent in Sabah and Sarawak over Putrajaya’s apparent federal-state power sharing with them. 
 
But such talks may now go behind closed doors. The United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organition (Upko), which is a component in the Barisan coalition in Sabah, is holding a by-invitation-only dinner cum forum tonight (16 Sept) in Kota Kinabalu touching on the Malaysia Agreement and Sabah’s 20-point conditions to the agreement as well as Sabah’s expectations for the future in Malaysia. 
 
Among the speakers is Bernard Dompok (right) , who is the immediate past president of Upko and a federal cabinet minister as well as Sabah’s chief minister at one time. 
 
He was defeated in the Penampang parliamentary constituency, the Kadazan heartland, in the 13th general elections (GE13) last year. 
 
Speculation has it that his defeat was partly due to the state Umno pulling the rug from under him. 
 
There was rumours that Upko may pull out of the ruling coalition just before the GE13 following the defection of two its incumbent MPs to the opposition coalition, Lazim Ukin and Wilfred Bumburing.

Lazim lost his parliamentary seat of Beaufort but won the state seat of Klias by a whisker. Bumburing too lost the Tuaran MP seat, but won the Tamparuli state seat.

 
Churches’ important statement
 
In yet another move, Sabah churches are taking an unprecedented initiative of organising a grand three-day Malaysia Day celebrations in Kota Kinabalu from Monday with the theme: “Into a New Season”. 
 
The celebration is also set to be the biggest of the ‘Mamangkis’ Christian revival gatherings in the state thus far.
 
According to the organisers, an important statement will be made at the final day of the gathering tomorrow (Sept 17). 
 
This is expected to be the most significant statement by the Christians since the Kuching Declaration, issued following a three-day consultation among church leaders in the Sarawak capital in September 1989.
 
Organisers said the statement is expected to include the churches’ position on secession. 
 
This is be followed by the “Mitabang Mamangkis” which is the climax of all the Mamangkis gatherings held at various towns in Sabah over the past year.
 
The Mamangkis is the war cry and victory song from the old head hunting days but has been contextualised as the clarion call for Christian revival. Mitabang is the call for believers to close ranks and help one another.
 
Will the season of discontent fade away? Can the church steer the storm that is brewing in the Land Below the Wind into a new season? 

BOB TEOH retired recently as a newspaper editor. He was the National Union of Journalists secretary-general from 1984 to 1986.