‘Prove Jeffrey met Daim in KK’

STAR has challenged Wilfred Bumburing's aide to openly apologise to Sabahans if he lied about Daim Zainuddin's meeting in Kota Kinabalu.

TENOM : Sabah State Reform Party (STAR) has warned its detractors to show proof that its chief Jeffrey Kitingan had recently met former Umno treasurer Daim Zainuddin, or face legal action.

Warning Pakatan Rakyat’s “newest” baby Angkatan Perubahan Sabah (APS), STAR Youth chief Azroy Hasmin Abdullah said there was no truth to a report in the local dailies here about the meeting.

Dennish Gimpah, a long-serving aide to Tuaran MP and APS chief Wilfred Bumburing, was quoted as saying that Jeffrey had purportedly met with Daim at Nexus Resort recently.

Earlier rumours were rife that STAR was being backed by Umno and Jeffrey had also issued threats to sue those spreading these rumours.

“We give Gimpah seven days to give proof of his allegation. If he cannot furnish proof in seven days from today, he must apologise openly; otherwise we will consider suing him for fitnah [lies],” Azroy said in a tersely-worded statement yesterday.

He said STAR hoped that people will see through Gimpah’s line of thinking which was to ensure that his boss (Bumburing) continued to hold a higher position at any cost.

“To STAR, it is the people and the Borneo Agenda that matter. We listened to what the grassroots want, what and how they wanted change to be executed in Sabah.

“If STAR forms a state government in Sabah, don’t tell us that a federal government under Pakatan would also treat us the way Umno-BN treated PBS years back.

“If that is so as implied by Gimpah, then both Bumburing and himself should seriously re-examine their supporting Pakatan right now,” Azroy said.

He also took Gimpah to task for asking how STAR will address the issue of illegal immigrants when it forms a state government, as it was “tantamount to saying Pakatan or even APS would not help address the problem even if Pakatan forms the federal government”.

“If that line of observation is taken, how would Gimpah take it if BN, instead of Pakatan, really addressed the issue of illegal immigrants?

“To STAR, we support good policies openly. But we know now that APS will support any ‘good’ thing that Anwar [Ibrahim] and Pakatan say. Maybe APS will just support anything blindly. We’ll let the people be our judge,” Azroy added.

‘Do you even care?’

He also chided Gimpah for supporting an alliance led by Anwar, who had in the past “signed” away Sabah’s future.

“Let me ask Gimpah, are you even concerned about Sabah at all? Are you concerned about us being dictated or not?

“Do you want Malayan parties to continue over-lording Sabahans? Or do you want to empower Sabah and Sabahans to chart their own future like what Star is doing?” he asked.

He also questioned APS’ aim in aligning itself with PKR and its role in the upcoming general election.

“Are you empowering the original PKR in Sabah or are you just there to split Sabah PKR for god knows who and in the process attain your ultimate goal of just getting Anwar to sign a small ‘yellow book’ of APS?

“How many letters, documents and booklets must Anwar have signed in Sabah to render us to what we are in now?” Azroy asked.

He said that it was now obvious that neither Bumburing nor Gimpah understood the need for Sabah to free itself from the dictates of a condescending federal government.

“The duo appear to not understand this factor [oppressive policies and dictates of the federal government on Sabah] despite their on-going calls for change and autonomy.

“Or has their prolong alliance and patronage with Malayan politics as Umno’s allies in Sabah BN, since time immemorial, blinded them that they do not know what has disenfranchised the people?”