Malaysian political debacles are continuing for sure. Some have already been eventful and some less so. But lets be reminded that the major happenings are only in the Peninsula and aren’t shared by the majority of Malaysians living in Sabah and Sarawak. Simply because many don’t know in great deal what happening over and across the South China Sea. From Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur more than a thousand miles separates the two.

Another reason people here are less interested to know what happens over there is because matters of those kind don’t affect their lives directly. The rrdinary people on the streets particularly in the small towns are far more concerned about managing their daily income and expenditure. They are worried about the price of goods that steadily increase while their income doesn’t. Our one ringgit worth of currency today is equivalent to only 10 sen fifty years ago.

Ikan basung cost 30 sen per kilo at a Kota Kinabalu wet market in 1970s; now it costs RM5 ringgit - about 17 times higher within 37 years. The sombre economic outlook may not yet be shared by those employed by the government or government agencies for after all, these group of people are guaranteed the same amount of salary at the end of every month.

But this is not the case for the self-employed eg, barbers, taxi drivers, rubber tappers, fishmongers, hotel workers, car repairers, and others in the service sectors. Many ordinary people that I talked to in the small towns are worried about losing their jobs or that their businesses will simply collapse.

Now, even their children’s tuition classes have been slashed dramatically; some forgone altogether in order to minimise expenses.

With the continued political impasse and economic uncertainties, we shouldn’t be surprised if an economic disaster happens sooner rather than later. This is where I think our leaders should be spending their time looking for solutions instead of being preoccupied with grabbing power from one another.

This greed mentality of the present leaders has actually agitated many ordinary citizens even more. Some already have decided to repay those responsible when the time comes. In other words, they will decide at the next general election who is to be voted in. But, of course, that doesn’t necessarily remedy the economic situation. What I’m saying is that the people are getting angry.

For instance, how many Sabahans and Sarawakians would care to think and be sentimental about the BN government hijacking Perak? Even if they were a few following the event closely, I think after their Ybs visits them with some explanations and some ‘goodies’ for those in the interior of Sabah, all will be forgotten.

Events like peaceful demonstrations in the country’s capital, debates and media announcements would never really touch the hearts of the rural people in Sabah and Sarawak. Last week, at the Dewan Rakyat after his swearing-in as MP, there was a stunt by Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin after which he and some fellow MPs were chased out of the House and suspended. That too I guess, was hardly noticed in Sabah’s and Sarawak mamak restaurants.

The mainstream media, meanwhile, usually doesn’t report political news excited if it works against the establishment. They don’t normally show the complete story or stories. This is understood. There isn’t an easy way for the people here to know the naked truth as many still aren’t familiar on where to locate the sources of information with exception of a very few who are prepared to spend time surfing the Internet and those who have relatives and friends stationed in the Peninsula.

Remember May 13? The majority of Sabahans only knew about the incident after everything had calmed down a few days after.

Talking about information technology, the Internet has yet to cover these two states fully and perhaps not even a quarter of them have access to the service. serviceable by Internet.

Sarawak is bigger than the Peninsula while Sabah is as big as the Peninsula. Talking about size again, the states of Malacca, Negeri Sembilan and Perlis alike would be mere districts if they were in Sabah and Sarawak. Thus the national distribution of wealth really needs to be revised in order to be seen as fair to majority of the population.

A few days ago, Murphy Oil Corp and Petronas (60%-40%) announced their new oil discoveries at Siakap and East Patricia both offshore Sabah and Sarawak respectively. The two states wouldn’t know what to expect in terms of payment. Even with earlier 5% royalty arrangement, they have no way of knowing how much, in fact, they have been paid.

It isn’t just about that the issue has never been publicly disclosed, but the accounting system itself is not for public to know.

With this observation, the political sentiments in the Peninsula are not shared with nor felt by Malaysians in Borneo. If Sabahans and Sarawakians are just as well-informed as Malaysians in the Peninsula, I would think Malaysia’s political colour could have been turned purple by now.

I chose purple to signify a scary and sombre outlook. Meanwhile, our federal leaders are spared, otherwise with the extra weight from Sabah and Sarawak would surely help the BN to sink faster. Again, lets ponder if what has happened in Borneo is politically designed or only a coincidence.