The talk of 'crossing-over' in Malaysian politics is all around now. This is holding generally true especially in the East Malaysia. Why are all this happening?

The truth as a matter of fact is that in East Malaysian politics, no one can tell what comes next. The main reason for all this is that since independence (or even before the independence of Sabah and Sarawak) we, the East Malaysians (Borneons) were never really given real responsibilities in choosing our political destiny. All along we had been governed, and the moment we get hold of ourselves, we were straight away nipped in the bud and never given the chance to stand on our own very feet. The so-called power or local power that we hold is generally a facade to conceal the main hands that govern us, which then was the British and now the federal government of Malaysia.

With no real power in our hands, Sabah and Sarawak can never be true to their commitments to their own states and people. These two states differ from each other slightly. For one, Sarawak has been controlled by a one person for more then a quarter century. Why not? He is the ‘godfather’ of the state, thus he runs all and thus the people are all in his clasps. One can fight, but money talks, especially among the naive and the ignorant. So here, as long as the godfather is obedient to the federal government, he will get all the mandate from the federal government.

But, now we are sensing some changes. There are some people testing the waters now, and with the changing waves coming from the five new opposition states, who can tell how brave and daring are the unsatisfied leaders of Sarawak now?

Sabah is another case. We, the Sabahans, are people full of spirit by nature. We dare to climb the mountain, after all we believe that our ancestors' spirits rest on the highest mountain in South East Asia. Mt Kinabalu is our symbol of pride and dignity. This we had proved during the rising of the local-based party PBS. We raised tall and conquered without fear. But unfortunately, that just remained so and didn’t progress further. We must not forget that there are many other factors to it. We, the Sabahans, are not free citizens. Democracy and independence are just facade as we are far away from them.

Sabah itself has no money or real power to substantiate itself. Sabah's economy, namely the rich natural resources, is controlled by the federal government. And the power that could make the real changes in the state is all in the hands of the federal government. Though the local-based party has managed to come forward fully charged, in the end, they get exhausted without the support of the federal government. Thus to go against, and to oppose the federal government is suicidal for the Sabahans. We have our people's mandate, but the federal government has the beef and the veto to block us from making any real move. All this is causing our once high-spirited leaders to turn delusional.

So what have all this brought unto us? In the end, the very leaders that we supported, trusted and took pride in all suddenly realised that they are sitting in limbo. Combined with the human basic nature of greediness, one by one our leaders fell into the jaws of the wolf. We, the ordinary citizens, became their prey, all exploited and used to the core. Anwar Ibrahim knew about all these

for he was the master in 1993 together with the then PM. Musa also knew all about this and has practiced the same tactics ever since. Here I am talking about money and promised power to entice the leaders. They paid and promised power to the potential candidates to jump, and thus Sabah is very well known for its ‘frogs’.

Aaa...the poor native people of Borneo, the submissive, the ever-obedient and who have been divided through the racial and religious lines...poor them...for they have been time and again been turned into the unwilling victims. They are the naive and the ignorant subjects of the powerful and the rich from the beginning of their coming-out-of-the-jungle time. The illegal immigrants have risen many times, subtly protected by the most powerful in the land, and have claimed themselves as ‘Malays’ and over-powered the just mere-natives-people-of-the-land. Here in Sabah we are nothing but the simple-minded natives and remain submissive - the forever subservient.

So what next for the politics of Sabah and Sarawak? Your guess is as good as mine. Beware Pak Lah, if you don't look after your subjects across the South China Sea, who knows, the next morning you will be greeted with the worst nightmare in your political life. All we know is that the genie of ‘frog’ has been released and has proven its effect before.