March 1996: 10 men, some clad in army gear and heavily armed with rifles and grenades coolly walked the streets of Semporna spraying bullets everywhere. They proceeded to bombard the police station with grenades, then burgled two jewellery stores. In the aftermath, a few people died and most of the culprits escaped. One of them was shot dead and on him was found 200 bullets! This town is a "popular" site with pirates, with several similar incidents in the past. Our PM described it as the "most violent on Malaysian soil".
March 1996: Once again, Sabah is "muncit" (bottom) in the country when it came to SPM/STPM results. In the SPM, Sabah only recorded 59.9% passes compared to the national average's 67%. Hopefully our economic growth doesn't fare so badly. Last year it was 5.5%, way below the national average of 8.7% and Penang's 12%.
April 1996: Sabah's civil servant image was severely damaged by the revelation that some police personnel (albeit a small majority) have been selling firearms and some immigration department personnel have been selling identity cards. These foreigners are getting glossy new new ICs quickly, and I haven't even got mine after six, yes, six years!
June 1996: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report on the multibillion ringgit Bakun Dam project declared invalid. Would this mean the project would be scrapped? What, just when the giants are just warming up their hands for counting money? Fat chance.