We are celebrating the 54th anniversary of Malaysia Day, and I am in Sabah yesterday and today in Sandakan, Lahad Datuk and Kota Kinabalu to celebrate the formation of Malaysia 54 years ago in 1963.

I would have expected the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and all the Cabinet Ministers to spend these few days in Sabah and Sarawak to celebrate Malaysia Day, but they seemed to have made the most perfunctory observation of Malaysia Day, with the Prime Minister and his deputy making lightning visit to Kota Kinabalu last night for the official Malaysia Day celebrations and and leaving almost immediately thereafter.

I do not think the Prime Minister is doing justice to Malaysia Day, Sabah and Sarawak especially at a time of the highest discontent by Sabahans and Sarawakians about the unjust and inequitable treatment by the Federal Government since 1963.

Najib could spend the past week in United States and United Kingdom but he could only spend a few hours in Kota Kinabalu for the formal Malaysia Day celebrations, flying in and out in a few hours. He could not spend even 24 hours in Sabah.

In the previous Parliament before the 13th General Elections, I had suggested that with the approach of the 50th anniversary of the formation of Malaysia, there should be a Royal Commission of Inquiry to inquire as to whether the dreams and hopes of Sabahans and Sarawakians in the formation of Malaysia in the past half a century had been realised and the reasons for their present discontents and unhappiness in Malaysia.

I was shocked that my proposal in Parliament for an RCI for Sabah and Sarawak did not receive any support from the Sabah and Sarawak Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Members of Parliament and my call for a RCI for Sabah and Sarawak remained only a record in the parliamentary Hansards.

If my call for a RCI for Sabah and Sarawak had been heeded and acted upon six or seven years ago, we would be in a better position today to deal with the grievances of Sabahans and Sarawakians. In a way, the past 54 years were lost and wasted years in ensuring justice, freedom, diversity, good governance and democracy.

If rampant corruption and abuses of power had not been the curses and bugbears for the past decades in Sabah and Sarawak, there would have been enough funds from Sabah and Sarawak from equitable sharing of oil and gas royalties to build the Pan Borneo Highway by now – and not allow Pan Borneo Highway to be Najib’s main bait for Sabah and Sarawak in the 14th general election.

The DAP co-ordinator for Lahad Datu Johan Nul said UMNO operatives are trying to frighten Malay and Muslim bumiputra voters claiming that DAP is anti-Malay and anti-Islam and that if Umno loses power, the Malays and Muslim bumiputeras will perish as the DAP and the Chinese will grab the political power of the Malays.

These are Umno lies, fake news and false information, for DAP is not anti-Malay and not anti-Islam. We have Malay and Muslim MPs, State Assembly representatives, leaders, members and branches as DAP represents all races and religions.

I am not surprised by Johan’s revelations about Umno lies and falsehoods. But Johan’s revelation marked a new stage in the history of DAP. This is the first time that I hear that Umno is using these lies in Sabah although they have been used in Peninsular Malaysia for decades.

This shows that Malays and Muslim bumiputeras in Sabah are breaking away from the Umno lies and falsehoods – that even in Sabah there is a new trend of Malays and Muslim bumiputeras supporting DAP for justice, fair play and democracy in Malaysia as well as in Sabah and Sarawak.

I want to use this occasion to call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry jointly headed by Tan Sri Simon Sipaun and Datuk Seri Robert Jacob Ridu into Malaysia Agreement 1963 and the Cobbold Commission report.

All the problems raised by Johan just now, about the erosion of Lahad Datu, the return of Labuan to Sabah, the corruption in Sabah and Sarawak as well as the misgovernance like no medicines at the Lahad Datu hospital since March this year will have platforms to be ventilated.

[Speech at the DAP Malaysia Day celebrations at Hotel De Leon in Lahad Datu on Sunday Sept 17, 2017 at 10 am]