The Brunei express bus tragedy in Tuaran on Dec 20 that claimed seven lives cast a pall in Sabah as the year 2011 was about to run out. The accident at Km8.9 of the Ranau-Tamparuli Road in Tuaran also caused several other passengers to be critically injured. These victims were subsequently flown to Brunei for further treatment. 

Sabah Deputy Police Commissioner Datuk Tan Kok Liang identified the dead as Hasnah Yusof, 62, Noor Faridah Husin, 62, and Abdul Ghani Muhamad, 66. The other four fatalities were Abdul Manan Ishak, 50, Pangiran Zaharah Pengiran Zainal, 61, Dayang Norhayati Abd Hadi, 61, and tour leader Awang Tarsad Damit, 58. 

It was reported that the Brunei-registered bus was carrying 33 people, including two children aged seven and nine, and that the oldest passenger was 78. They had come to Sabah for a holiday. However, the holiday outing turned into tragedy when the bus went out of control and overturned at a sharp bend and hit a tree near Kampung Koporingan in Tuaran at 3:05 pm while on its way back to Kota Kinabalu from Tawau.

About two months earlier, Sabah was jolted by a massive explosion caused by a collision between a train and a fuel tanker, and the blast made the front page of newspapers across the country. Miraculously, no casualties were reported in the Halloween Day incident that occurred at a petrol station in front of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) on Oct 31 at about 5:30pm.

Only 12 people were hurt, including the train driver, while the tanker driver escaped unharmed.

In another event of misfortune, a male pygmy elephant gored an Australian tourist to death at the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in Lahad Datu on Dec 7. Jenna O’Grady Donley, 25, was believed to have gone within 10 meters of the elephant which might have alarmed the animal, and according to State Wildlife Director Laurentius Ambu said pygmy elephants, a smaller kind of the elephant species, were considered endangered with only about 2,000 left in Sabah and less aggressive than normal Asian elephants.

On a different note, the purported coronation of the "Sultan of Sulu" here also shocked the entire local people of Sabah early this year. Many people including state leaders were taken by surprise over this frightening saga which had all segments of society buzzing with puzzlement.

Newspapers were abuzz when the businessman, Datu Mohd Akjan Datu Ali Muhammad, installed himself as the so-called 33rd reigning sultan of the Sulu sultanate on Feb 2 at a private ceremony held at Kampung Likas here. However, the event created concerns among the people that the coronation held on Malaysian grounds would result in serious security implications and would have foreigners, especially from the Philippines, misinterpret it as an encouragement for them to enter Sabah illegally.

Expressing concern over the coronation saga, almost all political parties in Sabah including Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), United Pasok Momogun Kadazandusun Murut Sabah (Upko), Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) and Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Sabah Progressive Party (Parti Maju Sabah) spoke in unison to demand the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the matter and also on the high number of illegal immigrants in the state.

In what is seen as a positive indication, Parliament has accepted a preliminary proposal from its select committee (PSC) on electoral reforms to have the RCI set-up, after the committee carried out a public hearing in Kota Kinabalu, much to the delight of the Sabah people. Ironically, on Dec 19, Mohd Akjan, the man who crowned himself Sultan of Sulu earlier this year, reappeared to fight off calls for a Royal Commission ofInquiry into claims that foreigners had been granted citizenship for their votes.

Now the chairman of the Sabah branch of the Islamic Welfare and Sermon Organisation of Malaysia (Pekida Malaysia), Akjan said such ‘repeated’ calls for an RCI would only cause misunderstanding, ‘incite hatred’ and create disunity among the various ethnic groups in Sabah.

This untimely statement of Mohd Akjan apparently fuelled and ignited the ire of the local people who have expressed their concern on the problems of illegal immigrants and so called "Project IC" that is alleged to have given citizenship to foreigners in return for votes. They are now insisting that the Federal government immediately establish the RCI for the good of everybody, particularly the locals and the state. 
   
As the next general election (GE) looms, United Borneo Front (UBF) president Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, a former Parti Keadilan Rakyat vice president, turned the heat up further by announcing the formation of an alliance with Sabah and Sarawak-based parties which would take on the ruling Barisan Nasional in the GE. He made the announcement at UBF’s first anniversary celebration on Dec 16, here, in the presence of Sarawak-based political party State Reform Party (Star) president Dr Dripin Anak Sakoi, Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) (Parti Maju Sabah) Deputy President Amde Sidik and pro-tem president of the newly revived Usno, Datuk Badaruddin Tun Datu Mustapha.

Dr Jeffrey, however, did not name a platform for him and his supporters to carry on his political career amidst growing speculation that he would form the Sabah chapter of a Sarawak-based party.  


- Bernama