The Consumer Association of Sabah and Federal Territory of Labuan (Cash) said it is time for the people deliver a strong message to the government by organising a one-day nationwide protest against the recent hike in petrol and diesel prices.

joshua kong

Its deputy president Joshua Kong explained that the government should take note of the urgent need to improve the country's public transport system.

“This is to reinforce the point that because fuel is so costly but that people cannot at the same time depend on the virtually non-existent or hugely inadequate public transport in most parts of the country,” he told Malaysiakini.

Kong, a chartered accountant, stressed that public transport was in a deplorable state in most cities and towns in the country - including Sarawak and Sabah.

He suggested the exercise be carried out during either a school holiday or public holiday or a weekend.

“Not only the streets will be quiet it will be seen there will be so few buses on the road too,” he said.

However, a Kuching-based senior academic with a public university suggested that for people to wait for buses on the streets for two hours in the morning would be sufficiently symbolic in sending the message across to the authorities.

Public transport fares are expected to go up after Wednesday's announcement on reduced government subsidies in the face of rising oil prices.

In Sarawak, the state’s Hire Lorry Association has already announced that its charges will go up by 50 per cent following the price hike.

Naturalised Sabahans

Meanwhile, Kong has lodged a police report at the Karamunsing police station alleging the government had committed breaches of the Malaysia Agreement for allowing a non-naturalised person to be the Sabah chief minister.

“According to the Malaysia Agreement and the Sabah Constitution, there is a requirement that any naturalised person cannot be the Chief Minister of Sabah as per Chapter 2 clause 6(4) found in MA4 of MA1-4 documents,” he said in the police report with a copy emailed to Malaysiakini today.

The word 'naturalised' means a person who is not born in Sabah.

Kong stressed that it is important that the birth certificates plus DNA analysis of all past and present chief ministers be available for public view.

musa aman 02 He noted that the Sabah Chief Minister official website stated “Musa Haji Aman, the present Chief Minister of Sabah, hails from Beaufort. He was born on 30th March 1951”.

“Hails means ‘come from’ and it is not the same as born,” stated Kong.

He added in his police report that it is important that only genuine Sabahans be involved in the issue of Borneonisation and this will disqualify people including chief ministers, ministers, deputy ministers already named in several police reports previously.

“It is essential that we address the issue of our rights as Sabahans being abused by outsiders - Malaysians, dubious citizens and foreigners alike - with the misplaced blame on Sabahans of our degraded plight on our homeland.

“As this rotten scenario had been perpetrated since independence and formation of Malaysia in 1963, a Royal Commission of Inquiry is desirable for the restitution of the rights of Sabahans and Sabah,” the report read.

The police report was lodged in light of the continuing controversy of the alleged Project IC or sometimes referred to as ‘Projek Mahathir’ whereby a million or more foreigners in Sabah were purportedly given Malaysian identity cards together with rights and privileges as other local indigenous people over the past two to three decades.

However, the federal government has refused to accede to request for a Royal Commission of Inquiry but also agreed to set up a Cabinet Committee to be chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to look into the issue.

Many Sabahan leaders, including those in the state's ruling coalition, are not happy saying the government's move falls short of their expectations and demanding a full Royal Commission of Inquiry to probe the depth of the matter as to how foreigners obtained their ICs, who were involve and where the directive came from.