NGO says mark Aug 31 as Sabah Day
Published on: Wednesday, August 01, 2018
Kota Kinabalu: Borneo Heritage Foundation (BHF) urged the State and Federal Government to recognise August 31 as Sabah Day."We want specifically this day is to be celebrated as Sabah Day and also declared as a Public Holiday in Sabah.We will also urge that August will be known as Sabah's Independence Month," said BHF Sabah Day 2018 celebrations Organising Chairman Jalumin Bayogoh.ADVERTISEMENT "This is to ensure our younger generation know that the state is on par its standing with Sarawak and Malaya in Malaysia. We want to bring back the status of the state as an equal partner in the country on par with Malaya."He said Sabahans have for a long time been told and are expected to celebrate Aug 31 each year as Malaysia's Independence Day."Sept 16 was originally celebrated as Sabah Head of State birthday and only a public holiday in Sabah alone. "But after the matter was urged and corrected by Sabah and Sarawak activists, among others, pioneered by Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, through non-governmental organizations such as Borneo Heritage Foundation (BHF), United Borneo Front (UBF) and others from Sarawak, Malaysia eventually recognised Sept 16 as Malaysia Day in 2010 and was celebrated largely on Sept 16, 2011." ADVERTISEMENT He said BHF is also directly involved in celebrating Sarawak's Independence Day on July 22. "We have held such a celebration in Kuching on July 22, 2013 and sent encouragement and requests to the Sarawak Government and the Government of Malaysia to recognise this date.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Finally in the 2016 Government of the Sarawak Government through its Chief Minister then Adenan Satem announced July 22 as Sarawak Day and began to be celebrated during that year."Jalumin said BHF is organising another Sabah Merdeka Day celebration on August 31, 2018.In order to make it more significant, BHF will also organize some activities related to Sabah's Independence during this Aug 2018. "The highlight is the Ambang Merdeka Sabah celebrations at KDCA Penampang on August 30, 2018 and on Aug 31, 2018, we will hold a Merdeka gathering at the Penampang Stadium."We will invite all local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), local political parties and individuals to be equally involved throughout the programme so that their spirit and purpose can be shared by every Sabahan."The Sabah Day 2018 executive committee is comprised of individual representing their respective NGOs, political parties as well as individual persons specialising in their respective fields."We also welcome all kinds of contributions, sponsorships whether in the form of financial or not, advisory services and so on for this program more successful."We hope that our organisation will get the cooperation and the celebration from the public so that all will be more aware of the true history of Sabah, and we will love Sabah more and will be opposed to whatever bring problems to the State."Sabah's independence was initially supposed to be declared on Aug 31, 1963 and not Sept 16, 1963.However, due to pressure from the Philippines and Indonesia, the United Nations sent a team to reconfirm the wishes of Sabahans and Sarawakians on the merger to form Malaysia.Hence, to accommodate the results of the findings, first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman decided to defer the date to Sept 16, 1963 and advised both British North Borneo (Sabah) and Sarawak leaders to be patient since the Malaysia Agreement had already been signed.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
However, Sabah went ahead to declare self-government on Aug 31, against the advice of Tunku. Sarawak did the same earlier. - Neil Chan