I am most shocked that the Chairman of Sabah UMNO and one of the aspirants to be  the next Sabah Chief Minister, Bung Moktar Radin, has great objection to the “In God we Trust, United We Must” slogan on the Shafie Apdal billboards which are put up all over Sabah.

This is most sad and tragic, especially when we  are in the midst of the Golden Jubilee of the five Rukun Negara principles as the basis of nation-building for Sabah and Malaysia.

If the Malaysian Government had fully complied with the five Rukun Negara principles in the nation building of Malaysia, Sabah will  not  continue to be discriminated against until we have the shocking phenomenon of one of the richest states in the country where the poverty rate is the highest in all states – as Sabah’s poverty rate is even higher than Kelantan!

The five Rukun Negara principles teach Malaysians to be God-fearing, loyal to King and country, respect the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law, and to be courteous and to be of good morality.

If the five Rukun Negara principles are upheld by all Malaysians and governments, whether Federal or State, then there will be  national unity, racial and religious harmony in Malaysia, a good and incorruptible government and  Malaysia will continue to progress in our mission to be a world-class nation in various fields of human achievement.

So far, those who oppose the five Rukun Negara principles have been doing so on the quiet – beyond the ken of public attention.

But the opponents of Rukun Negara as the basis of Malaysian nation-building are now getting bolder and  bolder, as seen by the Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyddin Yassin being forced to ignore my question whether all Ministers in his Cabinet accept fully and unequivocally all the five Rukun Negara principles as the basis of Malaysian nation-building.

The Sabah state general election is the first one where an aspirant Chief Minister of Sabah and chairman of Sabah UMNO is openly campaigning against the Rukun Negara when he objected to Shafie Apdal’s slogan: “In God We Trust, United We Must”.

Has Bung Moktar the support of UMNO President, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi,  all the UMNO Federal Ministers and Deputy Ministers and Barisan Nasional to begin to  question the Rukun Negara?

What are the people of Sabah to expect of Sabah UMNO and BN when they oppose the slogan “In God We Trust, United We Must”? 

Are Sabahans to  expect a godless  and very disunited Sabah and Malaysia if Bung Moktar ever becomes the Sabah Chief Minister on September 26th?

Lim Kit Siang

Member of Parliament, Iskandar Puteri