‘Stop calling for Sabah leaders to unite, Jeffrey’

Frustrated supporters of Jeffrey Kitingan are demanding that he takes a political stand.

KOTA KINABALU: Maverick Sabah politician Jeffrey Kitingan is causing confusion within the ranks of his supporters as the 13th general election looms with his ambiguous stand on politics in the state and country.

Their bewilderment was summed up by a veteran political activist who has thrown his lot behind the mercurial leader.

Fredoline Edwin Lojingki, 71, a coordinator in Kitingan’s Borneo Heritage Foundation (BHF), said Jeffrey should make up his mind on his approach to politics in Sabah.

He said it was pointless for Jeffrey to call on Sabah leaders “to unite for state interest”.

“I wish to differ with his (Jeffrey) approach. There is no use for such (a) call as those Sabah leaders have been there for ages.

“What have they done for state interests for the decades they have been in power?

“Shouting at every annual party annual congress?

“Jeffrey, there is no use calling for state leaders unity today. What needs to be done now is to provide … to find a very good alternative house (party) to this bunch of perennial tools of outsider’s (Umno) “divide and rule” on Sabahans,” Lojingki said in a statement here yesterday.

He was commenting on Jeffrey’s call for unity among state leaders, published in local newspapers on Wednesday.

Lojingki, an officer of the now-defunct United Kadazan Organization (Unko), said the majority of Sabahans are already united on the issue of safeguarding state interests.

“The grassroots people are already united now on safeguarding the 20 Points and all the recommendations of IGC, the Cobbold Commission and the nation’s founding fathers.

“They are just awaiting for a new, better vehicle to be united under,” he said referring to the demands by Jeffrey’s supporters that he form a party to take over from the half-a-dozen or so Sabah parties that have failed to unite.

Two-faced BN leaders

Lojingki accused leaders of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), the United Pasok Momogun Kadazandusun Murut Organization (Upko), Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) and the others in Barisan Nasional of being Janus-faced by remaining in a coalition that had smothered Sabah’s autonomy but at the same time claiming they were fighting for state rights.

“They should defend their collective policies and programmes and their new promises ahead of the election rather than try to seek dishonourable excuses to leave BN and betray the hands that have fed them to fatness and richness for decades.

“If they leave BN now, as some have indicated, it is only because they want to retain their influence and position which is under threat because of a shifting mood in the state political landscape.”

Claiming that the Sabah BN leaders are just looking for an excuse to leave, he warned that they were only doing so because they were losing support.

“It is not for state interests anyway … you can take it from me as a veteran activist who has seen it all in Sabah’s politics,” he said.

He said the leaders of PBS, UPKO and PBRS should continue to support Umno as they had all this while and not suddenly grow a conscious as they appeared to be doing now.

“The current MPs and YBs of PBS, UPKO and PBRS must stay at their respective constituencies and face their own constituents in the coming general election

“This is an honourable act … to be answerable to your own electors

“Don’t toy with the idea of moving to other safer seats.”

New entity needed

He said the days of Sabah leaders hanging on to power based solely on their standing in society rather than their ability to lead had come to an end.

“It cannot be a life-long campaign for state leaders to unite on state interests.

“What we need is a new entity, a new house, a new political vehicle for the disappointed grassroots, minus those state leaders who failed us miserably,” he said.

Kitingan is said to be considering forming a new party or bringing over the dormant Sarawak-based opposition party, STAR, to Sabah.

It is learned that Kitingan had held discussions with the leadership of STAR.

It is believed that he might use STAR as his political platform in the coming general election if registering a new party proves impossible.