Madiyem Layapan’s research while affiliated with Universiti of Malaysia Sabah and other places

This paper is revealing the key issue behind the Lahad Datu standoff that have significantly affected the life of Sabahans. The paper is intended not to blame anyone but instead to create awareness among us on the importance of strict international border controls, consistence citizenship policy, and transparent political activities. Such move is crucial as many Sabahan are of the opinion that the incident was strongly related with Malaysia’s internal political issues and the controversial citizenship-for-votes scandal. Accordingly, by applying a qualitative approach, this paper suggests that the policy makers impose strict international border controls, consistence citizenship policy, and transparent political activities.

Muhyiddin Yassin, Perdana Menteri Malaysia semasa berucap dalam Majlis Makan Tengah Hari Bersama Kepimpinan Masyarakat di Kuching, Sarawak pada 02 April 2021 telah mengumumkan panggilan untuk Sarawak dan Sabah yang sebelumnya disebut sebagai ‘negeri’ ditukar kepada ‘wilayah’ serta merta. Pengumuman tersebut telah mendapat pelbagai reaksi dari para pemimpin tempatan, pihak media dan netizen apabila mereka mula membincangkan dan berdebat tentang istilah berkenaan. Sebilangan didapati bersetuju dan tidak kurang pula yang menentang. Ada juga antara pihak berkenaan menganggap apa yang dimaklumkan oleh Perdana Menteri itu sebagai suatu sandiwara atau lakonan sahaja yang bertujuan politik kerana menurut mereka perubahan panggilan kepada wilayah bakal merendahkan taraf Sabah dan Sarawak menjadikannya sama seperti wilayah yang ada di Malaysia seperti Kuala Lumpur, Labuan dan Putrajaya. Sehubungan itu, mereka menegaskan bahawa penggunaan istilah wilayah tidak wajar memandangkan ianya bertentangan dengan hakikat bahawa ketika Malaysia ditubuhkan pada 1963, Persekutuan Tanah Melayu, Singapura, Sabah dan Sarawak mempunyai kedudukan yang sama sebagai rakan sekutu. Keadaan ini menjadi gambaran awal tentang wujudnya pelbagai isu dalam usaha mengubah panggilan Sabah dan Sarawak dari negeri ke wilayah yang mana hal ini seringkali dikaitkan dengan status serta hak-hak Sabah dan Sarawak dalam Persekutuan Malaysia. Berdasarkan aplikasi pendekatan kualitatif maka kertas kerja ini mengetengahkan perbincangan awal tentang aspirasi Perdana Menteri untuk mengubah nama panggilan Sabah dan Sarawak dari negeri ke wilayah. Adalah diharapkan dengan membaca kertas kerja ini maka para pembaca dapat memahami hubungkait diantara spirasi tersebut dengan status serta hak-hak Sabah dan Sarawak dalam Persekutuan Malaysia.

This paper presents a brief discussion on the need of improving leadership ethics for youth voluntary organizations development, which referring to views and opinions expressed by scholars and researchers on youth leadership. For this reason, this paper also presents a conceptual description of several concepts pertaining to youth, leadership and youth voluntary organization in Sabah, Malaysia. Thus, this paper comprises of several subtopics, namely youth and its classification, youth voluntary organization, the leader and leadership, the leadership ethics, and the needs for improvement of leadership ethics among youth leaders. It is hoped that this preliminary discussion on the need of improving leadership ethics among the leaders of youth voluntary organization provides opportunity for national development that focuses on youth development.

The advent of post-colonial era shows Asia-Pacific regions such as Malaysia, China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan have restricted migration policy. Despite the restriction, intellectual debates about the prospect of having open migration grew. The debates generally concentrate on what exactly are the benefits and risks of introducing open migration. This paper seeks to discuss what exactly are the benefits and risk of having open migration policies. To do so, it is argued that explanation on what exactly are the benefits and risk of having open migration policy must be tracked down by analyzing the security, economic and cultural issues in receiving country. Accordingly, based on literature as well as documents review, this paper suggest that open migration policy can be a source of security threats in receiving country which including the way that open migration may bring about uncontrolled population growth. In contrast, open migration policy may bring about economic and cultural enrichment in receiving country. Therefore, given the fact that open migration may bring about risks and benefits to receiving countries, this paper also explores the prospect of migration policy improvement as means of application for not only preventing the country form any risks, but also consolidating the economic and cultural enrichment though migration policy.

This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the rural poverty eradication efforts undertaken by the Sabah state government by way of various agricultural-based solutions. The discussion examines local attitudes, behaviour and acceptance towards the contract farming system as a tool for agricultural commercialisation and the improvement efforts targeted at effecting changes in rural society structures and uplifting the rural standard of living. Sabah’s administrative history, its rural and agricultural sector economic development, and the social structures of rural society are deliberated upon extensively since these elements are found to be intricately interwoven in the incidence of rural poverty and the acceptance or willingness by rural communities to participate in poverty eradication programmes such as contract farming. Based on document reviews, participation in contract farming programmes is found to be static (neither increasing nor declining) with the exception of rubber planting and paddy production which showed significant increase. Keywords: Sabah; North Borneo; rural society; rural poverty eradication; contract farming; agriculture.

Malaysia sebagai sebuah negara merdeka telah melaksanakan prinsip sistem politik demokrasi dengan mengadakan Pilihan Raya Umum sejak tahun 1955. Pilihan Raya Umum pada tahun 2018 merupakan PRU ke-14 (PRU-14) telah dilaksanakan di Malaysia. Pada PRU tersebut, sebanyak 25 kerusi parlimen dan 60 kerusi DUN telah dipertandingkan di negeri Sabah. Pilihan raya ini telah mencipta sejarah apabila gabungan parti-parti politik pembangkang iaitu Pakatan Harapan telah berjaya menewaskan parti Barisan Nasional yang menjadi pemerintah sejak Malaysia dibentuk pada tahun 1963. Sehubungan itu, selepas PRU-14 arena politik negara telah diwarnai dengan beberapa Pilihan Raya Kecil (PRK) peringkat Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) seperti di Sungai Kandis, Balakong dan Semenyih serta pilihan raya kecil bagi kerusi parlimen seperti di Cameron Highland, Port Dickson dan Sandakan. PRK bagi P186 Sandakan merupakan pilihan raya kecil yang kelapan diadakan sejak PRU- 14. PRK ini diadakan berikutan kematian ahli parlimen Sandakan iaitu Datuk Wong Tien Fatt akibat serangan jantung. Bagi mengisi kekosongan kerusi P186 Sandakan ini, pihak Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) telah menetapkan Pilihan Raya Kecil (PRK) bagi parlimen Sandakan supaya diadakan pada 11 Mei 2019 selepas proses penamaan calon selesai pada 27 April 2019. PRK Sandakan ini melibatkan pertandingan 5 penjuru iaitu diantara calon DAP, PBS dan calon bebas. Artikel ini bertujuan membicangkan pola pengundian dalam PRK Sandakan serta menganalisis senario politik negara pasca PRU-14 berdasarkan pengamatan keatas PRK bagi P186 Sandakan dengan menumpukan kepada aspek kerjasama dan persefahaman politik antara parti-parti politik. Melalui penjelasan khusus tentang pola pengundian pasca PRU-14 ini maka adalah diharapkan artikel ini dapat memberi pemahaman tentang perkembangan politik dan pilihanraya semasa di Malaysia secara umumnya dan di Sabah secara khususnya, agar ianya selari dengan prinsip demokrasi sebenar.