Anti-Rotation Campaign

It was reported that an action group in Kota Kinabalu, Badan Bertindak Belia Pencinta Nusa Malaysia (Cintanusa), on Thursday launched a campaign calling for an end to the rotation system of the Sabah Chief Minister's post.

Wearing a white arm band, bearing the words "No To Rotation", Cintanusa chairman Zulkarnain Mahdar told a news conference here that they had already identified action plans to achieve their objective -- to have the system scrapped after the next Sabah State elections.

He said they would submit a memorandum to the State and national Barisan Nasional (BN) leadership, conduct a referendum among the people and establish a lobby group "to pressure the State BN to sit and discuss the issue."

If all measures failed, Zulkarnain said, members of the group "may have to consider" contesting the upcoming Sabah State elections as a last resort to express their displeasure about the system.

"Now that the political situation in the State has stabilised, the system has achieved its purpose and should now be scrapped," he said.

Zulkarnain said the system barely gave enough time for a Chief Minister to implement his plans and that each time a new Chief Minister was appointed, a new set of priorities would come about.

The system was implemented in Sabah when the BN took over the State Government in 1994 to give leaders of the three major communities in the State -- the Muslim Bumiputera, the Chinese and the non-Muslim Bumiputera -- an opportunity to head the State Government for a two-year term each.

The system underwent slight modifications in 2001 with a leader from Umno taking over the post each time the term of either the Chinese or non-Muslim Bumiputera ended.

Zulkarnain claimed that they had been campaigning for the scrapping of the system since 2001 but had only been partially successful "because it has only seen a slight modification but the system remains in effect".

This is yet another time wasting politicking in Sabah. Sabah governments under so many Chief Ministers failed to bring notable progress and development to the state was due to the fact that there was too much time spent on rubbish politicking.

When the person in power fogets his core business and let himself (or willingly allowed) to be dragged into the rotation issue then he will never have the time to attend to more serious business concerning the people at large. He, the CM has to remember that he is answerable to his people and not just a few politicians seeking for cheap political mileage.

If any CM could make a difference then Datuk Musa Aman should be the one. Let see how he is going to react to this.