Filipinos in Sabah subjected to oppressive discrimination

One Newmond Tibin writes what can be nothing more than a praise release in the Borneo Insider. The said article if we can even classify it as one is an obvious blatant propaganda piece passed off as a newspaper article. And I thought ATM journalism is practiced only in the Philippines but it seems universal, although that should not come as a surprise considering how dirty Malasian politicians are. After all now that the Sabah Crisis has opened our eyes and we are now paying attention to our neighbor, it seems their politicians are no different from our narcissist corrupt Trapos (Traditional Politicians).

C’mon, who in his right frame of mind will write an article titled Special Security Area: Najib a Saviour for Sabah? Really, people on that side of the border falls for something like that? At any rate it’s the people’s prerogative to read what’s probably not even worth something like a toilet paper but when a writer starts to thrash other nationalities especially ours then we have a problem. Just look at how he describes and bash the Filipinos which I quote:

Like ants drawn to sugar, Filipinos, particularly from the southern Philippines, flock to Sabah, attracted by the abundant opportunies to earn a living particularly in the east coast of this beautiful state dubbed “The Land Below the Wind”.

Image courtesy of: Fred Amores of the Philippine Sabah Claim Forum

Really now, we are like ants nibbling at Sabah’s abundance? So we are now likened to tiny marauding ants scrambling for Sabah’s leftover crumbs? I wonder if that makes him feel superior over the Filipino people or is he just like any typical fool ignorant of where he speaks of? As if the insult and ignorant prejudice is not enough he follows it up with more BS, to quote:

Sabah’s strategic location, with a mere one to three hours boat drive from Tawi-Tawi, has made it a “gold mine” for these foreigners who come in droves, legally or illegally.

For decades, they were free to move in or out of the state, taking advantage of its porous borders, resulting in the increased number of illegal immigrants in Sabah.

Although they played an important role or contributed much to the economic development of Sabah, especially in the plantation and construction sectors, the influx of the illegal immigrants, beyond necessity, have now become a concern in terms of security for every segment of society in the state.

The ignorance is truly appalling, but of course he has to make a living too. It is sad that there are writers’ like this dude that makes a living out of promoting their personal ignorance to their readers that may be equally ignorant or more ignorant than they are.

The problem with ignorant people is that they can see only the surface and from there based their dumb judgment without having a solid appreciation or even elementary understanding of the reason behind the exodus. The reason the Filipinos, specifically those from the south migrate in droves like “ants” in Sabah, was to escape the violent conflict in Mindanao. In an area with a never ending conflict that is still raging after 50 years and counting, the natural reaction is to get away from the conflict zone as far as possible. It was this conflict that also contributed to the marginalization of the people in the southern Philippines to unimaginable poverty and deprivation.

Lest this writer and his equally ignorant readers believe his idiotic ramblings while it is true that policing a porous border presents a security problem one has to take into account the centuries old habits and traditions of people in the area like the Tausugs having no concept of state or citizenship because Sabah for centuries to this day has been and is one of the trading routes where people come and go treating the southern region of islands their home and means of livelihood. Sabah is not like heaven awash with Ringgits for the taking where one who escapes violence and poverty from the Philippines gets to enjoy a comfortable life. Having said that it is pure cruelty and arrogance on the part of this writer and hopefully not the general sentiments of the Sabahans because I know they are better people than what this Newmond Tibin is showing.

What is sad is when the writer writes about the Filipinos as if they are less of a human being comparing them to ants and yet forgets to mention that his government literally treats Filipinos just like ants denying their children schooling if they happen to not have legal papers. Having no legal papers they have reduced quite a number of Filipino children in the limbo of statelessness denied of any social welfare services and left on the street to fend for themselves when Malaysia goes on mass deportations wherein some unlucky children were left behind. Even more cruel and inhumane is seeing the problem and blaming the victims when the cause of the conflict also points to Malaysian politicians that trained, armed, and financed Muslim separatist all because of the late dictator Marcos botched attempt more than 50 years ago to clandestinely infiltrate Sabah.

Marcos was wrong in trying to get Sabah in a foiled clandestine covert operation and for that the politicians of Malaysia seized the opportunity to create havoc and chaos in the Philippine south. Now that it has become a permanent problem even long before the death of Marcos and the threat of invasion has long been eliminated should they not have stopped and do something to stop the carnage and further destruction that is also causing the exodus to Sabah of Filipinos?

It takes 2 to tango so they say, perhaps something good will come out of this when and if ever Filipino leaders treat this Sabah crisis as a wake up call to get their act together. Unfortunately the leader that promised the Filipino people that they can hope and dream again because he is leading the nation towards the narrow straight path of righteousness is acting like Najib Tun Razak’s lap dog. It is truly sad when leaders of the Philippines and Malaysia and their lap dogs seems to be in denial or are simply just cruel as if 200,000 lives lost in the Mindanao conflict does not matter. All they see right now is the percieved wrong that the followers of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III committed against both governments forgetiing the fact that they are the aggrieved party here. 

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