Sabahans must decide whether to have Shafie Apdal continue as Sabah Chief Minster or to have Hajiji or Bung Moktar as CM or a political scenario of great instability and chaos where the political frogs can demand their highest price

The people of Sabah must decide on September 26 whether to have Shafie Apdal continue as the Chief Minister of Sabah, or to have Hajiji Noor or Bung Moktar to be Chief Minister, or equally worse, to have a political scenario of great instability and chaos whether the political frogs can demand their highest price.

Sabah Umno leader Bung Moktar Radin insists today that Umno and BN have changed and are committed to a fairer, transparent, and trustworthy administration that will deliver on its promises to the people.

At the launch of his coalition's Aku Janji campaign manifesto, he said that Sabah Umno and BN have changed, from the leadership, skills to organisation.

He said: "Why have we changed? Because we want to capture the hearts of the people and we want to convince the people to support us."

He said that the Aku Janji promises will be delivered 100 percent.

But have the Sabah UMNO and BN changed? How different are their Aku Janji promises from the promises UMNO made when it first contested in the Sabah General Election in 1994?

Let us revisit the promises of a New Sabah which UMNO made in the 1994 General Election.

Firstly, UMN promised to reduce the poverty level in Sabah from 33 per cent in 1994 to zero in the year 2000.

Sabah is one of the richest states in the country, but after more than half a century in Malaysia, Sabah’s people have remained the poorest in the country, reduced to a position like that of Kelantan. This is not progress but regress.

The year 2,000 had come and gone, but the poverty level in Sabah remains one of the highest in the country.

This promise to reduce the poverty rate in Sabah to zero was renewed by UMNO under the fifth Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Badawi but the time span was changed to 2,010.

But 2,010 has come and gone and we are now in 2,020 and the zero poverty rate in Sabah remains a chimerical dream as it is still one of the highest in the country.

Secondly, UMNO promised in 1994 to eliminate illiteracy to zero in year 2,000 but year 2,000, 2,010 have come and gone, and we are in Year 2,020 and this objective remains another chimerical dream.

Thirdly, UMNO promised in 1994 to eradicate corruption in Sabah. This is another chimerical dream. In fact, Sabah is one of the states where corruption is most serious and where corrupt political leaders seem to enjoy immunity from prosecution.

Fourthly, UMNO promised in 1994 to give every Sabahan a house by the year 2,000. Just ask the people of Sabah whether they have each got a house from the UMNO-led Government, and the answer is a thunderous negative.

Fifthly, UMNO promised in 1994 to resolve the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah. It is now 26 years since the “Aku Janji” and the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah remain as complex and intractable as ever. There had been a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the problem of illegal immigrants in the intervening period, but the problem of illegal immigrants remain as distant from resolution as ever.

UMNO broke every “Aku Janji” it made when it first contested in Sabah in the 1994 General Election. Can Bung Moktar explain how today’s UMNO and Sabah BN have changed their DNA?