The Catholic priest who almost made it possible for Sabah to secede from Malaysia Federation

Historiana: The Catholic priest* in Sabah who was at the forefront of an independent Sabah 

In 1990, Benjamin Basintal (in picture), a Catholic priest led a 'revolution' from within Sabah. 

Basintal was linked to a Sabah secession plot in 1990. He went missing during that year detained under Kuala Lumpur's dreaded Internal Security Act (ISA) and possibly tortured. He had been hounded and harassed continuously by Kuala Lumpur agents. The loss of Barisan Nasional in the 1990 election and the victory of Christian-dominated PBS, the Sabah political party much hated by Mahathir, was attributed to his disappearance.

Benjamin Basintal was not your typical Catholic missionary priest. He was vocal about denouncing the inequities in Sabah, the corruption of its politicians and the greed and injustice of Kuala Lumpur.

According to his relatives, Benjamin saw Sabah "with its abundant natural resources on one side and many of its people abjectly poor on the other side was a gapping wound. The state’s wealth that could help lift them out of the poverty trap was instead paying for vanity projects elsewhere in Malaysia and this was an affront to him."

Basintal left for the United States soon after his release by Kuala Lumpur's ISA. How he got to leave Sabah remains a mystery. He studied journalism and went into teaching when he returned to Sabah.

Benjamin Basintal died of organ failure last month, a few weeks away from the Sabah elections.

*NB: What most Filipinos don't know is that Sabah used to be predominantly Christian until Mahathir imported Muslim would-be voters from Indonesia and the Philippines, a project he hatched from the time he came to power in 1981 and executed for a number of years until he retired from politics in 2003. Mahathir exported Bumiputra Malayans from Peninsular Malaysia with wads of cash (I kid thee not) and promises of a good life for them if they stayed and lived in Sabah, and of course, they had to vote Barisan Nasional or BN (Mahathir's party and Najib's party today.) Sabah had to be "de-Christianised" so to speak.

Mahathir was still flooding Sabah with Bumiputras from Peninsular Malaysia while I was living in Kuala Lumpur in the 90s. I also remember too well the stories surrounding the trial of the owner and publisher of the Borneo Mail which first bannered the disappearance of Basintal. Borneo Mail's owner was charged and tried under the Printing Presses and Publications Act a charge which still carries today, a penalty of three years jail or a fine of 20,000 Malaysian ringgits or both.

~~ By Anne de Bretagne
for the Defenders of the Philippine Sabah & Spratly Claims 
30 April 2013

To read about Benjamin Basintal:  The Incident that changed Sabah 

Link to Benjamin Basintal blog www.mrbensblog-antidot.blogspot.com