Sabah a Muslim Majority State?

At the time of independence in 1963 the Muslim population of Sabah was at 37%. Recent official statistics by the government of Malaysia puts Sabah's Muslim population at 63.7% .

In the early 1970s during the outbreak of the Moro rebellion in the southern Phillippines, thousands of Muslim refugees came to Sabah and settled in refugee camps. Many of them later acquired Malaysian citizenships illegally. In the early 1980s, when Datuk Harris Salleh was the Chief Minister of Sabah, tens of thousands Indonesians and Filipinos (most of them Muslims) acquired Malaysian citizenship illegally as detailed in the books by Joshua Kong (EPIC of Sabah) and M.D Mutalib (IC Palsu & Lelaki Malaysia Terakhir).

Apart from this we must also not forget the large number of West Malaysian civil servants who work and live in Sabah, most of whom are Muslims. Population surveys usually includes the legalized illegals, the illegals and West Malaysians as well.

No wonder then, the Muslim percentage in Sabah is so high. One would not really care if the number of Muslims increase in Sabah from among real Sabahans. But too have so many illegal citizens and West Malaysians in the state, and then claiming Sabah to be a Muslim-majority state is very unfair.

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Baby gloom haunts Lee

Saturday March 28, 2009

THE rising number of reluctant brides, particularly among the highly educated, has again been highlighted by Singapore’s founding leader Lee Kuan Yew.

In a recent dialogue with undergraduates, Minister Mentor Lee pointed to his own daughter as an example when he talked about the long-term impact of falling marriage and procreation rates.

His concern about Singapore’s population slide had been around for some 25 years, seeing it a threat to its long-term survival.

A newspaper headline just asked: “Will we be the last of the Mohicans (an American Red Indian tribe that became extinct)?”

In other words, the low fertility will lead to the extinction of the present 3.25 million true-blue Singaporeans.

The white-haired Lee says an increasing number of the better-educated women are choosing to remain single as a lifestyle choice, and happy with it.

Lee is 86 today. This year he enters a historic 50th year of state leadership to become the world’s longest serving leader.

He showed the students an uncharacteristic glimpse of his softer, fatherly figure, a divergence from his past combatant self. This time, he talked of his unmarried daughter to make a point.

She is Dr Lee Wei Ling, the bright 54-year-old director of the National institute of Neurological Sciences, who once lashed out at the “elitist attitude of some in our upper socio-economic class.” Courtesy from The Star

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