KOTA KINABALU: A state-wide Sabah flag relay has been flagged off to raise public awareness about an important piece of Sabah\u2019s forgotten history: that it had achieved self-governance and independence, though sadly a short one.
\nOrganised by StarSabah Wiramaja, the programme involves teams of flag bearers passing the Sabah flag to other awaiting teams in various districts across the state before it reaches Keningau on August 31 for the highlight of the Sabah Day celebration.
\nThe party annually commemorates Sabah\u2019s independence on 31 August 1963, following the declaration of the then North Borneo governor William Goode regarding Sabah’s self-governance and independence from British rule.
\n\u201cWe want to raise awareness regarding the importance of distinguishing the fact that Sabah\u2019s independence is different than Malaya\u2019s independence. Where Sabah has its own identity and its own independence which makes it different from the other states in Malaya,\u201d said StarSabah Wiramaja Chief Felsie Joy who is also the Sabah Day 2022 organising chairman in a statement.
\nShe stressed the importance for Sabahans to understand their history because what happened in the past set the chain of events that created the social-economic and political challenges they are facing today.
\n\u201cWe cannot deny the fact that Sabah is still underdeveloped compared to the other states in the Malaysian Federation. This is partly due to incorrect historical facts where many Sabahans do not celebrate Sabah\u2019s Independence Day correctly.
\n\u201cCelebrating the wrong historical date marks the start of degression for developing the future of Sabah. How do we create a prosperous future if we do not even know our own history? Are we Sabahans aware or are we denying our independence? When we decide to deny our own history, we dismantle the future for our children. The question we need to ask ourselves is what does independence mean to us,\u201d she said.
\nFelsie hoped for Sabah Day to be gazetted as an official state celebration.
\nParti Solidariti Tanahairku (StarSabah) President Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan has for so long been consistent in calling for the state assert and celebrate its independence on August 31 as it is the most important milestone of any nation.
\nHe had said, as far back in 2013, that the people must know that Sabah gained independence on August 31, 1963 and was 16 days before being rushed into forming Malaysia with three other independent nations, Malaya, Sarawak and Singapore.
\nHe insisted that the correct history needed to be re-written and taught to the younger generation that Malaya gained independence on August 31, 1957, while Sarawak and Singapore gained theirs on July 22, 1963 and June 3, 1959, respectively, and that Malaysia was formed as a new nation on “Malaysia Day” on Sept 16, 1963.
\nIt was the date he said that the powers, rights and privileges to decide the future destiny of Sabah were handed back to Sabahans.
\nSarawak officially declared July 22 as the state\u2019s Independence Day \u201cafter public discontent about the public holiday Hari Merdeka being too Malaya-centric\u201d. It has been celebrated annually since 2016.
\nThis year\u2019s Sabah Day celebration will start on 30 August at Pisompuruon Square, Tambunan for \u201cAmbang Merdeka\u201d and on the 31th August 2022 in Padang Bandaran, Keningau for \u201cKemuncak Merdeka\u201d.
\nThe programme is jointly organised with Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP). According to Felsie, other parties and NGOs are also invited to participate to make it more meaningful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KOTA KINABALU: A state-wide Sabah flag relay has been flagged off to raise public awareness about an important piece of Sabah\u2019s forgotten history: that it had achieved self-governance and independence, though sadly a short one. Organised by StarSabah Wiramaja, the programme involves teams of flag bearers passing the Sabah flag to other awaiting teams in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":14720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14721,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14719\/revisions\/14721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}