I have received a memorandum on Sabah poverty from Tan Sri Harris Salleh, the sixth Sabah Chief Minister from 1976-1985.

We have had a very rocky relationship in the seventies and eighties, when Harris was the Sabah Chief Minister and abused his powers by banning me from entering Sabah for legitimate political activities.

The most notable episode in my clash with Harris Salleh when he was Chief Minister was when he denied me entry into Sabah to accept his political challenge to repeat my speech in Parliament without parliamentary privilege and I was bodily carried up to the waiting aircraft at the Kota Kinabalu Airport to take me back to Kuala Lumpur on August 24, 1984.

The photograph of this episode was later misused by the producers of the film “Tanda Putera” as a pre-release advertisement campaign to show that I was in Kuala Lumpur during the May 13, 1969 riots when I was never in Kuala Lumpur at any time during the May 13, 1969 riots.

Despite these very rocky history between us, I am prepared to listen to Harris’ view as to the most effective way to eradicate poverty, especially as it has become a very “hot” issue after the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Professor Philip Alston, said last month that Malaysia had not eradicated poverty as claimed by the previous government and that Malaysia had undercounted the number of poor. Read the rest of this entry »