We Were The Champions

Hantu Laut

Come to 'Land Below The Wind' where the wind of change is still blowing far off the horizon. The wind of change didn't blow strong enough in the March 2008 General Elections. There were no nimbus clouds threatening a deluge that poured torrents of rain of protests to debunk and bring down the government.The gathering storms were far across the South China Sea, on the other side of the ocean.

Sabah politicians have always been wild and wily.This is where frog culture and money politics originated from, much to the consternation of the so-called sophisticated politicians from the West, appalled by what they see as immoral and shameful act of betrayal.Sabah was once the biggest thorn in the flesh of Federal leaders. Now, politics in the state are more tampered and less volatile.The frogs,toads and biawaks have migrated to the 'Land Of The Kings'.

Sabahans were very progressive, innovative and definitely very inventive when it comes to politics.In the past, we invented a foolproof system of keeping our assemblymen in line and from defecting, we made them sign undated letters of resignation before they can be nominated to stand for election.If any one of them try to be funny or contemplates defection after being elected, we affix a date to the undated letter and submit it to the Speaker of the Assembly.Presto! A by-election.Than some idiotic leaders from Kuala Lumpur interfered and said it was undemocratic and unconstitutional and forced us to stop the practice and brought the court of law to stop it.

Not exactly happy with that interference we decided we must teach these smart donkeys a lesson, we invented the frog culture, out of spite, to show the sophisticated Peninsula politicians how democratic we were. Next thing we knew the politics in Sabah is like a 'Yo Yo', you don't know whether you are coming or going.The democratic frog culture was not helping to keep political stability and those crooked assemblymen started making all sorts of demands and if you don't meet their demands they threatened to transform into a frog and before you knew it they have hopped over to the other side.

Many years later we became wiser and very careful, this time we must invent something lawful, something that our brothers in the West wouldn't object.

We went to the State Assembly and managed to secure majority approval of the members to pass an 'Anti-Hop' law that prohibits any elected representative from defecting or crossing over to another political party.They can only leave by resignation of their positions or failing which the positions fall vacant by virtue of the law and by-election must be held thereafter.We thought this it time would be fine, no one can defect, no one can argue or say it's wrong, because the law says so. Than, again, some smart-asses from Kuala Lumpur came and told us that this one was also wrong, it's against freedom of association and, therefore, against the Federal Constitution.They went to court and the court ruled in their favour and the law was repelled. Before we knew it, they have stolen a number of our assemblymen, made them cross over to their side and obviously we lost the government.

Well, to cut the story short and to whittle away the pain of being played out many times we decided if 'You can't fight them, join them' which we did and now we found ourselves in better shape than they are.In fact, we and our brothers in Sarawak saved the day for them, saved them from annihilation.They have never been in a more precarious position before than now.Even with our help they are still walking the tightrope and hopelessly have no idea whether they are going or coming and when they are going to lose the government that they have held for more than five decades. Now, how they wish they have the 'Anti-Hop' law to protect them.One frog has already crossed over to to the other side and some donkeys in the party were already calling for such law to be implemented.

We saw these problems about four decades ago and took action to make sure politicians do not use politics to serve themselves.Unfortunately, the more powerful force destroyed all our inventions to suit their purpose, now, how they wish they hadn't done that.

We were the champions.We are the champions.