Thursday, January 10, 2008

BN Sabah does not need Chinese votes any more?

Mazu statue photo
From the events that have taken place in Sabah lately,it is apparent that the Barisan Nasional (BN) is very confident it will win the up coming general election in Sabah again, without the help from the Chinese component parties.
First, a piece of land belonging to the Cantonese-Hokkien Cementry was taken back by the Sabah state government and given to the Sabah Woman Assiciation to build their new building.
Then a piece of land in Kolombong approved for the construction of the Third Campus of Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Chung Hwa (China)was revoked and the land was later awarded to a company engaged in joint venture with the Sabah state government. Instead the school is given another piece of land which is much, much smaller and further from the main access road.
The most recent event is the sudden order from the Kudat Municipal Council to stop the building of a giant Mazu (Heavenly Queen) statue in Kudat.The statue is at 60% completion stage.The steering committee of the Mazu Statue project is Datuk Seri Chong Kah Kiat,the former Sabah Chief Minister.Datuk Seri Chong was holding the Minister of Tourism,Environment and Culture profolio in the Sabah state cabinet then.He rsigned from the post in protest against the stoppage of the statue project.
Whatever happened between the current Chief Minister of Sabah,Datuk Seri Musa Aman and Datuk Seri Chong is their personal affairs. But it should not involve the construction of the Mazu statue because the Mazu statue does not belong to Datuk Seri Chong alone, it belongs to all the Chineses in Sabah.The leadership of BN has mistakenly considered that this will only anger a small faction of the Chinese,namely the Taoism followers.
They are sreiously wrong, people will view this matter as not only the victimizing of the Chinese but as victimizing all the non-Muslims.Today it is the Taoists, tomorrow it maybe the Buddhists,then the Hindus or maybe the Christians? It is not that simple.