Sabah is a Malaysian
state located on
the northern portion of the island of Borneo
(see map). It is the second
largest state in Malaysia after Sarawak
, which it
borders on its south-west. It also shares a border with the province
of East
Kalimantan
of Indonesia
in the south. In spite of its status
as a Malaysian state, Sabah remains a disputed territory; the
Philippines
has a dormant claim over much of the eastern part
of the territory. The capital of Sabah is Kota Kinabalu
, formerly known as Jesselton
. Sabah is known as "Sabah, negeri di bawah
bayu", which means "Sabah, the land below the winds", because of
its location just south of the
typhoon-prone
region around the Philippines.
History
The region
of present-day Sabah was part of the Sultanate of Brunei
around the early 16th century. This was
during the period when the Sultanate was at its 'golden era.' In
1658 the Sultan of Brunei ceded the northeast portion of Borneo to
the
Sultan of Sulu in compensation
for the latter's help in settling a
civil
war in the Brunei Sultanate. In 1761 an officer of the
British East India Company,
Alexander Dalrymple, concluded
an agreement with the Sultan of Sulu to allow him to set up a
trading post in the region. This together with other attempts to
build a settlement and a military station centering around
Pulau Balambangan proved to be a failure.
There was minimal foreign interest in this region afterward and
control over most parts of north Borneo seems to have remained
under the Sultanate of Brunei. Palawan, Philippines was once to be
part of Sabah until Filipinos protested it last 1994 and claimed
again its territory.
In 1865
the American
Consul of Brunei, Claude Lee Moses, obtained a 10-year lease
over North Borneo from the Sultan of Brunei. Ownership was
then passed to an American trading company owned by J.W. Torrey,
T.B. Harris and some Chinese merchants.
They set up a base and
settlement in Kimanis
but this too
failed due to financial reasons. The rights of the
trading company were then sold to Baron Von Overbeck, the Austrian
Consul in Hong Kong
, and he later obtained another 10-year renewal of
the lease. The rights were subsequently transferred to
Alfred Dent, whom in 1881 formed the
British
North Borneo Provisional Association Ltd.
In the
following year, the British
North Borneo Company was formed and Kudat
was made its
capital. In 1883 the capital was moved to Sandakan
to capitalise on its potential of vast timber
resources. In 1888 North Borneo became a protectorate of the United Kingdom
. Administration and control over North
Borneo remained in the hands of the Company despite being a
protectorate and they effectively ruled until 1942. Their rule had
been generally peaceful except for some rebellions, including one
led by the Suluk-Bajau leader
Mat Salleh
from 1894 to 1900, and another led by
Antanum of the
Murut
which is known as the
Rundum
resistance in 1915.
Second World War and the road to independence
From 1942
to 1945 during the Second World
War, Japanese
forces occupied
North Borneo. The Japanese forces landed in Labuan
on January
1, 1942, and continued to invade the rest of North Borneo.
Bombings by the
allied forces
devastated of most towns including Sandakan, which was totally
razed to the ground. Resistance against Japanese occupation were
concentrated on the west and north coast of North Borneo. The
resistance in Jesselton was led by
Albert
Kwok and Jules Stephens of the
Kinabalu Guerillas. Another resistance
was led by Panglima Alli from Sulug Island, off the coast of
Jesselton.
In Kudat, there were
also some resistance led by Tun Datu
Mustapha. On October 10, 1943, the Kinabalu Guerrillas
together with followers of Panglima Alli staged a surprise attack
on the Japanese. The attack however was foiled. The 324 local
residents who participated in the attacks, including Albert Kwok
and Panglima Alli, were detained in Petagas and later executed on
January 21, 1944. The site of the execution is today known as the
Petagas War Memorial.
In Sandakan there was once a brutal POW camp run by the Japanese
for the prisoner British and Australian servicemen from North
Borneo. They raped the locals all the time. They suffered in agony
in their first year of captivity under notoriously inhuman
conditions, but much worse was to come through forced marches of
January, March and June 1945 ( refer to Sandakan Memorial Park WWII
POW Museum Records ). Allied bombardments caused the Japanese to
relocate the POW camp to inland Ranau, 260 km away. All the
prisoners, who by then were thinned down to 2504 in numbers, were
to be moved, but instead of transport, were forced to march the
infamous "
Sandakan-Ranau Death
March" route. Sickness, disease, exhaustion, thirst, hunger,
whipping or shooting of the failed escapees killed their lot except
for the six Australians who successfully escaped, were never caught
and survived to tell the horrific story of the death march. The
fallen of this march are commemorated each year on Anzac Day
(Memorial Day) in Australia and in Sandakan, at the original POW
campsite where a POW hut style museum and a black marble memorial
obelisk monument are nestling in a leafy, lilly ponded and peaceful
park setting.
When Japan surrendered at the end of the war, North Borneo was
administered by the
British Military
Administration and in 1946 it became a
British Crown Colony. Jesselton was
chosen to replace Sandakan as the capital. The Crown continued to
rule North Borneo until 1963. On August 31, 1963 North Borneo
attained self-government. There was a call for complete
independence on that date by it was denied by the British Governor
who remained in power until
Malaysia
Day. The intention had been to form Malaysia on August 31 but
due to objection from the Philippines and Indonesia, the formation
had to be postponed to September 16.
On September 16,
1963, North Borneo together with Malaya
, Sarawak and Singapore
formed the Federation of Malaysia
and from then on, it became known as Sabah and
declared independent from British sovereignty. To safeguard
the interest of North Borneo in the new federation, a
20-point agreement was entered
into between the federal and the state government.
Philippine claim
The
Sultanate of Sulu was granted the
north-eastern part of the territory as a prize for helping the
Sultan of Brunei against his enemies and from then on that part of
Borneo was recognized as part of the Sultan of Sulu's
sovereignty. In 1878,
Baron
Von Overbeck, an Austrian partner representing The
British North Borneo Company
and his British partner
Alfred Dent,
leased the territory of Sabah. In return, the company was to
provide arms to the Sultan to resist the Spaniards and 5,000
Malayan dollars annual rental based on the Mexican dollar's value
at that time or its equivalent in gold.
This lease was
continued until the independence and formation of the Malaysian
federation in 1963 together with Singapore, Sarawak and the
states of Malaya. As of 2004, the Malaysian Embassy to the
Philippines had been paying cession/rental money amounting to
US$1,500 per year (about 6,300 Malaysian Ringgits) to the heirs of
the Sultanate of Sulu.
The contract between Sri Paduka Maulana Al Sultan Mohammad Jamalul
Alam, representing the sultanate as owner and sovereign of Sabah on
one hand, and that of Gustavus Baron de Overbeck and Alfred Dent
representing the North Borneo Company, on the other as lessees of
Sabah, was executed on January 22, 1878. The Lease prohibits the
transfer of Sabah to any nation, company or individual without the
consent of His Majesty’s Government (“Government of the Sultan of
Sulu”).
Although it is mentioned to be a permanent
lease, it is contrary to international law, which states that the
terms for a lease contract can be for only 99 years, as in the case
of Hong
Kong and Macau
when these
were leased to United
Kingdom and Portugal
respectively, by China
and
subsequently returned after the expiration of the lease.
This would make the lease on Sabah overdue by 130 years.
Less than a decade later, the Sultanate of Sulu came under the
control of Spain and in 1885, Spain relinquished all of its claim
to Borneo to the British in the
Madrid Protocol of 1885.
In spite
of that, in 1906 and 1920 the United States
formally reminded United Kingdom that Sabah did not belong to them and was still
part of the Sultanate of Sulu on the premise that Spain never
acquired sovereignty over North Borneo to transfer all its claims
of sovereignty over North Borneo to the United Kingdom on the
Madrid Protocol of 1885. This is so because the Sultan of
Sulu did not include his territory and dominion in North Borneo in
signing the treaty of 1878 recognizing the Spanish sovereignty over
“Jolo and its dependencies.” North Borneo was never considered a
dependency of Jolo. However, the British Government ignored the
reminder and still annexed the territory of North Borneo as a Crown
Colony on July 10, 1946.
This was in spite of the fact that the
British Government was aware of the decision made by the High Court
of North Borneo on December 19, 1939, that the successor of the
Sultan in the territory of Sabah was the Government of the Philippine
Islands
and not United Kingdom.
On September 12, 1962, during President
Diosdado Macapagal's administration, the
territory of
North Borneo, and the full
sovereignty, title and dominion over the territory were ceded by
the then reigning Sultan of Sulu, HM Sultan Muhammad Esmail E.
Kiram I,
to the Republic of the Philippines
. The cession effectively gave the Philippine
government the full authority to pursue their claim in
international courts.
The Philippines broke diplomatic relations with Malaysia after the
federation had included Sabah in 1963. It was revoked in
1989 because succeeding Philippine administrations have placed the
claim in the back burner in the interest of pursuing cordial
economic and security relations with Kuala Lumpur
.
Geography
The western part of Sabah is generally mountainous, containing the
three highest mountains in Malaysia.
The most prominent
range is the Crocker
Range
which houses several mountains of varying height
from about 1,000 metres to 4,000 metres. At the height of
4,095 metres, Mount
Kinabalu
is the
highest mountain in Malaysia . The jungles of Sabah are
classified as
rainforests and host a
diverse array of plant and animal species.
Kinabalu
National Park
was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2000 because of
its richness in plant diversity combined with its unique
geological, topographical, and climatic conditions.
Lying nearby Mount Kinabalu is
Mount
Tambuyukon. At a height of 2,579 metres, it is the third
highest peak in the country.
Adjacent to the Crocker Range is the
Trus Madi Range which houses the
second highest peak in the country, Mount Trus Madi
, at a height of 2,642 metres. There are
lower ranges of hills extending towards the western coasts,
southern plains, and the interior or central part of Sabah. These
mountains and hills are traversed by an extensive network of river
valleys and are in most cases covered with dense
rainforest.
The central and eastern portion of Sabah are generally lower
mountain ranges and plains with occasional hills.
Kinabatangan
River
begins from the western ranges and snakes its way
through the central region towards the east coast out into the
Sulu
Sea
. It is the second longest river in Malaysia
after
Rejang River at a length of 560
kilometres. The forests surrounding the river valley also contains
an array of wildlife habitats, and is the largest forest-covered
floodplain in Malaysia.
Other
important wildlife regions in Sabah include Maliau Basin
, Danum
Valley
, Tabin, Imbak Canyon and Sepilok
. These places are either designated as
national parks, wildlife reserves, virgin jungle reserves, or
protection forest reserve.
Over three quarters of the human population inhabit the coastal
plains. Major
towns and
urban centers have sprouted along the coasts of
Sabah. The interior region remains sparsely populated with only
villages, and the occasional small towns or
townships.
Beyond
the coasts of Sabah lie a number of islands
and coral reefs, including the largest
island in Malaysia, Pulau
Banggi
. Other large islands include, Pulau Jambongan, Pulau Balambangan, Pulau Timbun
Mata
, Pulau Bumbun, and Pulau Sebatik
. Other popular islands mainly for tourism
are, Pulau
Sipadan
, Pulau Selingan,
Pulau Gaya, Pulau Tiga
, and Pulau Layang-Layang
.
Government
State government structure
Sabah has a
democratic political system with
universal suffrage. The
Yang di-Pertua Negeri sits at the top
of the hierarchy followed by the
state legislative assembly and the
state cabinet. The Yang di-Pertuan Negeri is officially the
head of state however its functions
are largely ceremonial. The chief minister is the
head of government and is also the leader
of the state cabinet. The member of the legislature who commands
the majority of support in the house may be appointed as chief
minister. A
general election for
state and federal level officials is held every five years. The
state parliament or the state legislative assembly meets at the
state capital, Kota Kinabalu. The state is divided into 25
parliamentary constituencies and 60 state assembly districts where
each is represented by an elected Member of Parliament (MP) and
Member of the State Legislative Assembly respectively.
The present elected state and federal government posts are held by
Barisan Nasional (BN), a
coalition of parties which includes
United Malays National
Organisation (UMNO),
Sabah
Progressive Party (SAPP),
United
Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (UPKO),
Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah
(PBRS),
Parti Bersatu Sabah
(PBS),
Liberal
Democratic Party (LDP), and
Malaysian Chinese Association
(MCA).
The last state election was in 2004 and as of 2006, the state
legislature has 60 members. It comprises 59 BN state legislature
members (Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri) and a single independent. Of
this, 32 are from UMNO, 13 from PBS, 5 from UPKO, 4 from the SAPP,
3 from LDP, and one each from MCA and PBRS.
- See also:
Breakdown of state seats representatives in Sabah elected
2008
The political climate
Prior to the formation of Malaysia in 1963, the then
North Borneo interim government submitted a
20-point agreement to the
Malayan government as conditions before Sabah would join the
Federation.
Sabah entered Malaysia as an autonomous
state with a Christian Kadazan-Dusun
chief minister, but soon succumbed to Kuala Lumpur's vision of a
one-party unitary Islamic state dominated by the indigenous Muslim
Bajau and Brunei Malay people. This has created
considerable friction and even occasional calls for
secession. These tensions are further inflamed by
Kuala Lumpur's colonial mentality towards Sabah, wherein 95% of the
profits from Sabah's immense natural resources are taken by the
federal government, leaving the state government with only 5%.
Aside from nominally separate immigration controls, little evidence
remains of Sabah's theoretical autonomy.
Until the
Malaysian general
election, 2008, Sabah, along with the states of Kelantan
and Terengganu
, are the only three states in Malaysia that had
ever been ruled by opposition parties not part of the ruling BN
coalition. Led by
Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin
Kitingan, PBS formed government after winning the 1985
elections and ruled Sabah until 1994. Due to certain internal
troubles, BN took over the government in 1994 despite PBS winning
the elections. PBS subsequently joined the BN coalition in
2002.
A unique feature of Sabah politics was a policy initiated by the BN
in 1994 whereby the chief minister's post is rotated among the
coalition parties every 2 years regardless of the party in power at
the time, thus theoretically giving an equal amount of time for
each major ethnic group to rule the state.
This extremely
weakens the executive branch of the state government, which was
formerly much at odds with the federal government in Kuala Lumpur. It also serves to give a disproportionate
power to the indigenous Muslim
Bajau ethnic
group, at the expense of the mainly Christian indigenous
Kadazan-Dusun, the largest ethnic group. This
practice has since stopped with power now held by majority in the
state assembly by the UMNO party, which also holds a majority in
the national parliament.
There has been a conspiracy theory that the chief minister post
rotation system was implemented to allow UMNO to control the post
permanently by abolishing the whole system once it was UMNO's turn
to hold the post. It has never been proven but it is considered
impossible for UMNO to get a hold of the post through any other
method.
The conspiracy theory was brought up once
again when a division from UMNO proposed to implement the same
rotation system in Penang, one of the two states which is currently
not controlled by UMNO but is under BN rule (the other state being
Sarawak). The
proposal was raised even though UMNO abolished the system in Sabah
by declaring it a failure.
UMNO had a quick rise to power since its entry into Sabah in 1991
where before that both eastern Malaysian states were not penetrated
by the party, whose president is the de facto leader of the ruling
coalition BN and automatically the Prime Minister of Malaysia. This
has given rise to dissent as the chief minister rotation system was
halted just as UMNO was holding the post. Thus the 2004 general
elections saw widespread disillusionment, coupled with an
ineffectual opposition. The state assembly is now dominated by the
ruling party BN with only one seat held by an opposition politician
who is an independent candidate. This was caused by a general
sentiment where a number of voters were reluctant to cast votes for
BN whose victory was almost assured but did not trust the
opposition parties, most of which were not vigorously active before
the election. Therefore many cast votes for independent
candidates.
Sabah politics, as are Malaysia's, is very much based upon party
lines. An effort by PBS, a component party of BN, to hatch a
co-operation with the one opposition candidate within the state
assembly, who conversely was a former UMNO member competing
independently because he was not nominated for the constituency by
his party, in an unprecedented attempt at bipartisanship, was
harshly criticized by UPKO, another component party of BN.
Chief Ministers of Sabah
Administrative divisions
Sabah consists of five administrative
divisions, which are in turn divided
into 24
districts.
These administrative divisions are, for all purposes, just for
reference. During the British rule until the transition period when
Malaysia was formed, a
Resident was
appointed to govern each division and provided with a palace
(
Istana). This means that the British considered each of
these divisions equivalent to a Malayan state. The post of the
Resident was abolished in favour of district officers for each of
the district.
|
Division Name |
Districts |
Area (km²) |
Population (2006) |
| 1 |
West Coast Division |
Kota Belud,
Kota
Kinabalu, Papar , Penampang , Putatan , Ranau, Tuaran |
7,588 |
953,900 |
| 2 |
Interior Division |
Beaufort , Nabawan , Keningau , Kuala Penyu, Sipitang , Tambunan , Tenom |
18,298 |
420,800 |
| 3 |
Kudat Division |
Kota Marudu , Kudat, Pitas |
4,623 |
189,500 |
| 4 |
Sandakan Division |
Beluran, Kinabatangan , Sandakan, Tongod |
28,205 |
676,000 |
| 5 |
Tawau Division |
Kunak , Lahad Datu , Semporna , Tawau |
14,905 |
756,800 |
|
Local Government
As in the rest of Malaysia, local government comes under the
purview of state governments. However, ever since the suspension of
local government elections in the midst of the
Malaysian Emergency, which was much less
intense in Sabah than it was in the rest of the country, there have
been no local elections. Local authorities have their officials
appointed by the executive council of the state government.
Demographics
The
population of Sabah was 2,449,389 in 2000 and was the third most
populous state in Malaysia after Selangor
and Johor
. It
is estimated that Sabah's population has exceeded that of Johor
with an estimated population of 3,400,000 in 2007. Sabah indeed has
one of the highest population growth rates in the country.
Ethnicities and Religion
Statistics of religion by state are not provided by the Department
of Statistics Malaysia. Sabah has one of the highest populations of
Christians (Roman Catholic and Protestant) living in Malaysia but
this proportion is believed to have fallen due to Muslim
immigration from Malaya and Indonesia. Religious breakdown (2000):
Islam 63.7%, Christianity 27.8%, Buddhism 12%, No Religion 1.0%,
Taoism/Confucianism 0.4%, Others 0.3%, Hinduism 0.1%, Unknown
0.3%.
[4845]
The people of Sabah are divided into 32 officially recognised
ethnic groups. The largest immigrant
ethnic group is the
Chinese.
Most
Chinese people in Sabah are concentrated primarily at Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, and Tawau.
Kota Kinabalu has the highest concentration of Chinese people in
Sabah, followed by Sandakan (second highest) and Tawau (third
highest). The largest indigenous ethnic group is
Kadazan-Dusun, followed by
Bajau, and
Murut. There is
a very small number and proportion of
Indians and other
South Asians in Sabah compared to other parts
of Malaysia. Collectively, all persons coming from Sabah are known
as
Sabahans and identify themselves as such.
Malay is the national language spoken
across ethnicities, although the spoken Sabahan dialect of Malay
differs much in inflection and intonation from the West Malaysian
version, having more similarity in pronunciation to
Indonesian.
English,
Mandarin as well as
Hakka and
Cantonese are widely understood. In addition,
Kadazan-Dusun, Bajau, Murut and other smaller groups also have
distinct ethnic languages. Sabah also has its own unique
Sabahan-slangs for many words in Malay.
The federal government of Malaysia officially recognizes 28 ethnic
groups as being
indigenous or
bumiputra in Sabah:
Other inhabitants:
Economy
Sabah's economy was traditionally heavily
lumber dependent, based on export of tropical
timber, but with
increasing depletion of the natural forests and ecological efforts
to save remaining natural
rainforest
areas,
palm oil has emerged. Other
agricultural products important in the Sabah economy include
rubber and
cacao.
Tourism is currently the second largest
contributor to the economy. There are other exports like seafood
and vegetables.
In 1970, Sabah ranked as one of the richest states in the
federation, with a per capita GDP second only to Selangor (which
then included Kuala Lumpur). However, despite its vast wealth of
natural resources, Sabah is
currently the poorest of Malaysia's states. Average incomes are now
among the lowest in Malaysia, and with a considerably higher
cost of living than in West Malaysia.
In 2000 Sabah had an
unemployment
rate of 5.6 per cent, the highest of any Malaysian state and
almost twice the national average of 3.1 per cent. The state has
the highest
poverty level in the
country at 16 per cent, more than three times the national average.
Part of the problem is the inequitable
distribution of wealth between state
and federal governments, and large numbers of illegal immigrants
from Indonesia, the Philippines, even East Timor, whose population
was estimated to be in the region of half a million people. In 2004
the poverty level worsened to 22 per cent.
The recent tabling of the
Ninth
Malaysia Plan has allocated RM16.908 billion for Sabah, the
second highest state allocation after Sarawak's but it is still
only 8% of the total national budget for a population of Sabah of
more than 13%, and an area of more than 25%. This is clearly
discriminatory and has contributed to the State of Sabah having the
largest number of people below the poverty line in Malaysia, and
lower than the Indonesian national poverty rate and in the same
level as Aceh and Myanmar based on 2004 United Nations
figures.
The fund is pledged to improve the state's rural areas, improve the
state's transportation and utilities infrastructures, and boost the
economy of Sabah. The government has placed its focus on three
major areas of the economy which have the potential to be Sabah's
growth engine. These are agriculture, manufacturing and
tourism.
When this discriminatory budget against Sabah and Sarawak was
pointed out, the allocation for Sabah was increased from the
earlier figure of 15.7 billion RM while there is none for Sarawak.
The reason given to Sarawak's Chief Minister, as reported by Borneo
Post (11 November 2007) is that it is not economical to develop
Sarawak. Sarawak is to be the source of renewable resources for
Malaya. This situation applies to Sabah as well except that
Sarawak's renewable resources are not even meant for Sabah. The
percentage of the total budget is still much less than Sabah's
population and area burdens.
Urban centers and ports
There are currently 7 ports in Sabah: Kota Kinabalu Port, Sepanggar
Bay Container Port, Sandakan Port, Tawau Port, Kudat Port, Kunak
Port, and Lahad Datu Port. These ports are operated and maintained
by Sabah Ports Authority. The major towns and city are:
Tourism
Tourism, particularly
eco-tourism, is a
major contributor to the economy of Sabah. In 2006, 2,000,000
tourists visited Sabah and it is estimated that the number will
continue to rise following vigorous promotional activities by the
state and national tourism boards and also increased stability and
security in the region. Sabah currently has six national parks.
One of
these, the Kinabalu
National Park, was designated as a World Heritage Site in 2000.
It is the
first of two sites in Malaysia to obtain this status, the other
being the Gunung Mulu National Park
in Sarawak. These parks are maintained
and controlled by
Sabah Parks under the
Parks Enactment 1984. The
Sabah Wildlife Department also has
conservation, utilization, and management responsibilities.
National Parks
Notable Sabahans
Politics and governance
Mat Salleh was a Suluk-Bajau who led a
rebellion against British North Borneo Company administration in
North Borneo. Under his leadership, the rebellion which lasted from
1894 to 1900 razed the British Administration Centre on Pulau Gaya
and exercised control over Menggatal, Inanam, Ranau and Tambunan.
The rebellion was by Bajaus, Dusuns and Muruts.
Another notable Sabahan is
Donald
Stephens who helped form the state of Sabah under the UN
appointed Cobbold commission. He was an initial opponent of
Malaysia but was persuaded by
Lee Kuan
Yew with an offer of 8 university places for Sabahan students
at the University of Malaya, Singapore .
Donald Stephens was the first
Huguan Siou or paramount
leader of the
Kadazan-dusun and
Murut people.
Tun Datu Mustapha was a
Suluk-Kagayan Muslim political leader in Sabah through the United
Sabah National Organisation (USNO) party. He was a vocal supporter
of Malaysia but fell out of favor with Malayan leaders despite
forming
UMNO
branches in Saba and deregistering USNO. Efforts to reregister USNO
have not been allowed, unlike UMNO that was allowed to be
reregistered under the same name.
Former Chief Minister
Joseph
Pairin Kitingan is the current Huguan Siou and the President of
Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS).
Pairin, the longest serving chief minister of the state and one of
the first Kadazandusun lawyers, was known for his defiance of the
federal government in the 1980s and 90s in promoting the rights of
Sabah and speaking out against the illegal immigration problems.
Sabah was at the time one of only two states with opposition
governments in power, the other being Kelantan. PBS has since
rejoined BN and Datuk Pairin is currently the Deputy Chief Minister
of Sabah.
The 8th and current
Attorney General of Malaysia,
Abdul Gani Patail, comes from Sabah.
In 2006,
Penampang-born Richard Malanjum was appointed Chief Judge of
Sabah and Sarawak and became the first Kadazandusun to hold such a post.
Arts
Sabah has produced a fair number of well-known media figures. With
the advent of reality TV in Malaysia, Sabah produced more
breakthrough artist compared to 4 decades before.
- Movies & TV: Tony Francis Gitom
(filmmaker), Daphne Iking (NTV7 host), Farid Amirul Hisham (actor :
'Gerak Khas', Lim), Kamaruddin Mape (TV3 Newscaster), Farish Aziz
(Astro TV host), actress Fung Bo Bo & Chung Shuk Wai
- Radio Disc Jockey: Maryanne Raymond (a.k.a. DJ
Mary of TraxxFm), Constantine Anthony(a.k.a. DJ Constantine of
TraxxFm), Shahrizan Ferouz(a.k.a. DJ The Shaz of TraxxFm), Fadhil
bin Luqman (a.k.a. DJ Fad Da Dillio on TraxxFm) (To know more about
TRAXXfm, Log on to http://www.traxxfm.net or listen live at
http://bkj-station1.jaring.my/traxxfm) DJ Johnboy Lee of Hitz. FM
& Bigfish Radio, DJ othoe (Suria.FM)
- 1st Sabahan Online Radio:
(Sabahan.FM) DJ AbgLang, DJ KiNaBaLu, DJ si_jason,
DJ Black, DJ Saliparjipun, DJ Iter, DJ markiekadus, DJ sumandak, DJ
ayustitch, DJ lordYork, DJ Langau (http://www.sabahan.net/
http://sabahan.FM/listen.pls)
- Musicians & Composers: Guitarist Roger
Wang, composer Julfekar and Asmin Mudin
- Singers: Nazrey Johani (ex- nasyid group
Raihan), Azharina Azhar, Winner of the Evergreen Singer Award Peter
Dicky Lee, Pete Teo, Jerome Kugan, Mia Palencia, Yan Qing, Gary Cao, Dyg Noraini Hj. Shaari (Sinaran Pasport
Kegemilangan Winner)
- Band & Groups: JIAJA (Blast Off! Season 2
Champion), E-Voke (Gang Starz 1), One Nation Emcees (Gang Starz
Season 2 Winner), B.A.D. Boys (Adam's artists), Lotter & Divine
Masters, Richael Gimbang of Estranged
- Reality TV stars (non-finalist): Nikki Palikat
(Malaysian Idol), Mas (AF2), Yazer (AF3), Nora (AF4), Farha (AF5),
Noni (AF5), Rubisa (AF7), Zizi (AF7), AB (OIAM2), Mark Malim
(OIAM2), Shone (OIAM2)
- International Artists: Che'nelle
Sports
Matlan Marjan is a former football
player for
Malaysia.
He scored two goals against
England in an international
friendly on June 12, 1991. The English team included Stuart Pearce,
David Batty, David Platt, Nigel Clough, Gary Lineker, was captained
by Bryan Robson and coached by Bobby Robson. No other Malaysian
player managed to achieve this. In 1995, he along with six other
Sabah players, were arrested on suspicion
of match-fixing. Although the charges were dropped, he was
prevented from playing professional football and was
banished to another
district. He was punished under the
Internal Security
Act (which allows for indefinite detention without any trial,
despite being proven innocent, and even on non-security related
issues).
Business
Arts and entertainment
Sabahan contestants attained many finalist spots and even won major
reality TV show contests. This phenomenon is probably due to many
hidden Sabahan talents finally uncovered through Reality TV.
- One in a Million: Ayu (OIAM2 winner), Esther (1st runner-up OIAM3)
- Akademi Fantasia
finalist: Norlinda Nanuwil & Adam from AF2, Felix Agus & Marsha Milan Londoh from AF3, Velvet
& Lotter from AF4, Candy & Ebi from AF5, Stacy the AF6/1st Sabahan/2nd female
champion
- Gang Starz: E-Voke
(season 1 semi-finalist), One Nation Emcees (season 2 winner)
- Blast-Off: Jiaja (season 2 winner)
- Mentor: Pija (winner season 1), Fiq (winner
season 2)
Sabah's first homegrown film was
Orang Kita, starring Abu
Bakar Ellah.
Some films and TV shows filmed in Sabah include the first season of
reality show
Survivor,
The Amazing Race,
Eco-Challenge Borneo, films
Bat*21, as well as a number of Hong Kong
production films such as
Born
Rich. Sabah was also featured in
Sacred Planet, a
documentary hosted by Robert Redford.
There are many types of traditional dances in Sabah, most notably:
- Daling-daling: Danced by Suluks and Bajaus. In
its original form, it was a dance which combined Arabic belly
dancing and the Indian dances common in this region, complete with
long artificial finger nails and golden head gear accompanied by a
Suluk song called daling-daling which is a love story. Its main
characteristic is the large hip and breast swings but nowadays it
is danced with a faster tempo but less swings, called
Igal-igal.
- Sumazau: Kadazandusun traditional dance which
performed during weddings and Kaamatan festival. The dance form is
akin to a couple of birds flying together.
- Magunatip: Famously known as the Bamboo dance,
requires highly skilled dancers to perform. Native dance of the
Muruts, but can also be found in different forms and names in South
East Asia.
Sabah's first established newspaper was the
New Sabah Times. The newspaper was founded
by
Tun Fuad Stephens, who later
became the first
Chief Minister of
Sabah.
American author
Agnes Newton
Keith lived in Sandakan between 1934-1952 and wrote several
books about Sabah. Sabah was also the main location for the filming
of the 1937 American documentary based on the adventures of
Martin and Osa Johnson titled
Borneo.
In the Earl Mac Rauch novelization of
Buckaroo Banzai (Pocket Books, 1984;
repr. 2001), and in the DVD commentary, Buckaroo's archenemy Hanoi
Xan is said to have his secret base in Sabah, in a "relic city of
caves."
References
- Gudgeon, L. W. W. 1913. British North Borneo. Adam and
Charles Black, London.
- Chin, Ung-Ho. 1999. 'Kataks', Kadazan-Dusun Nationalism and
Development: The 1999 Sabah State Election (Regime Change And
Regime Maintenance In Asia And The Pacific Series No 24, Department
Of Political And Social Change, Research School Of Pacific And
Asian Studies, Australian National University) (ISBN
0-7315-2678-3)
- Urmenyhazi, Attila (2007) DISCOVERING NORTH BORNEO, a
travelogue on Sarawak & Sabah by the author-graphic
designer-publisher, National Library of Australia, Canberra, Record
ID: 4272798.
Footnotes
- C.Buckley: A School History of Sabah, London, Macmillan &
Co. Ltd., 1968
- Johan M. Padasian: Sabah History in pictures (1881-1981), Sabah
State Government, 1981
- "Sabah's Heritage: A Brief Introduction to Sabah's
History", Muzium Sabah, Kota Kinabalu. 1992
- Ramlah binti Adam, Abdul Hakim bin Samuri, Muslimin bin Fadzil:
"Sejarah Tingkatan 3, Buku teks", published by Dewan Bahasa dan
Pustaka (2005)
- [1], The Deed of Sabah Lease of 1878 Accessed
March 1, 2008.
- Protocol of 1885. Sabah Law. Extracted June 3, 2008
- [2], Instrument of Cession of the Territory of
North Borneo to the Republic of the Philippines. (7th "whereas"
clause). Accessed March 1, 2008.
- [3], Sabah Transfer of Sovereignty From the
Sultanate of Sulu to the Republic of the Philippines. Accessed
March 1, 2008.
- [4], Come clean on Sabah, Sulu sultan urge
gov't. Accessed March 1, 2008.
- Kinabalu Park - Justification for inscription,
UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Accessed June 24, 2007.
- About the Kinabatangan area, WWF.
Accessed August 4, 2007.
- Senarai ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri Sabah,
sabah.gov.my. Accessed August 4, 2007.
- "Monthly Statistical Bulletin, January 2007: Sabah",
Department of Statistics Malaysia, Sabah.
- "Housing Census of Malaysia, 2000", Department
of Statistics, Malaysia
- Malaysia: Administrative Divisions (population and
area), World Gazetteer. Accessed August 4, 2007.
- Languages of Malaysia (Sabah). Ethnologue. Retrieved on May 4,
2007
- "Outline Perspective of Sabah", Institute
for Development Studies (Sabah). URL accessed May 7, 2006
- "UN Sabah Poverty Statistics, 2004". URL accessed
January 13, 2008
- "Indonesian Poverty Statistics, 2004". URL
accessed January 13, 2008
- UN World Poverty Statistics 2005". URL accessed
January 13, 2008
- "The Edge Daily". URL accessed January 13,
2008
- Sabah Ports Authority
- Malaysia: largest cities and towns and statistics
of their population, World Gazetteer. August 4,
2007.
- Sabah: Visitors Arrival by Nationality 2006,
Sabah Tourism Board. Accessed August 4, 2007.
- "M.G.G. Pillai". URL last accessed on January
13, 2008
- EnglandFC Match Data
External links
- the second highest mountain in Southeast Asia with an altitude of 4,101
metres (13,455 ft). It is lower than only Puncak Jaya
in Irian
Jaya
on the island of New Guinea
, Indonesia
- Located near Semporna, the oceanic island of
Sipadan
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