Quit seats first or be branded ‘cheats’, says DAP

As Opposition Leaders Anwar Ibrahim continues to woo MPs in Sabah and Sarawak, DAP feels that politicians had the right to change their party in pursuit of their political agenda.

KOTA KINABALU: Elected MPs, from both sides of the political divide, should quit their respective seats first before jumping to another party, otherwise they will be viewed as “cheats” by voters.

Sabah DAP adviser Hiew King Cheu said this was important because “when people vote for you, they give you their trust”.

He said while politicians had the right to change their party in pursuit of their political agenda, they should do so only after completing their term as anything else would be equivalent to betraying their respective constituencies.

“People who voted for you would feel cheated because they elected you based on your political stand, your personality and the party you represented.

“So, if any of these important factors change, you have to be fair to the voters and let them decide before you take the liberty of representing them,” he reportedly said.

Hiew was commenting on State Reform Party (STAR) Sabah chairman Jeffrey Kitingan’s now famous “all politicians in Sabah are frogs” remark.

The remark has left many Barisan Nasional leaders in Sabah frothing in anger even as speculations are rife that Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is busy wooing MPs here to boost the numbers in his camp in preparation for a nail-biting 13th general election.

Jeffrey, in a statement issued last night, questioned these leaders’ attacks on him, saying that they had thus far been silent on all the major issues raised by him and STAR.

“BN leaders don’t want to talk about the real issues because they know they can’t defend themselves.

“What are all these big fat frogs doing about it after sitting in government for so long? They claim to have working relations with KL and yet they can’t solve a single important problem for Sabah.

‘Why is Sabah BN not using its good office to solve the problems of poverty, land and native customary rights (NCR) issues, oil royalty, and the loss of rights from the 20-point agreement?” he asked.

PBS denies Pairin ‘jumped ship’

Meanwhile, the latest to criticise Jeffrey is PBS secretary-general Henrynus Amin.

Amin said contrary to Jeffrey’s claim, PBS president Joseph Pairin Kitingan did not jump ship from Berjaya to PBS.

“He was literally thrown out of the big ship to the open sea of political uncertainty by the then Berjaya leadership in 1982. He was without a ship for many years,” he said.

Amin said Pairin later set up PBS with a group of followers and charted his own direction.

“Pairin was true to his cause and never abandoned ship unlike Jeffrey. It was Jeffrey who instigated the eventual splintering of PBS,” he said.

Jeffrey during his speech to STAR members in Bingkor, Keningau, last weekend had said that even Chief Minister Musa Aman and Pairin had been political frogs.