Kit Siang: Sipaun’s comments were true

DAP national advisor Lim Kit Siang recently criticized the UMNO Youth wing for lodging a police complaint against former Sabah State Secretary Simon Sipaun’s remark that Sabah was better place to live in before it joined Malaysia.

Lim, who visited Sabah over the weekend, backed Sipaun’s views that life in Sabah was more pleasant during the colonial era, with lower crime rates and the absence of illegal immigrants.

Speaking to some 800 people during a ‘Rocket Night’ dinner function held by DAP Sandakan, Lim chided the UMNO Youth’s report that Sipaun’s statement was ‘seditious’.

“What is so seditious about telling the truth?” he asked.

Sipaun, a former Suhakam Commissioner, had said that Sabah’s development is nowhere near West Malaysia’s development in the 47 years since Sabah became part of the country.

Lim also acknowledged the fact that migrant Bumiputras have changed the state’s political landscape drastically.

The World Bank had in November 2010 stated that Sabah is the poorest state in Malaysia, with the ethnic and indigenous people being continuously marginalized.