Jeffrey’s STAR crumbling?

KOTA KINABALU: Jeffrey Kitingan’s State Reform Party (STAR) in Sabah is said to be on the verge of disintegrating after its dismal performance in the recently-concluded general election.

Sources in the opposition party said many of its senior leaders are taking a vacation from active politics in a prelude to leaving the party altogether.

In the May 5 polling, STAR only won one state seat in Bingkor through its Sabah chapter chairman, Jeffrey who also bidded for the Keningau parliamentary seat but lost to his brother, Joseph Pairin, who stood on a Barisan Nasional ticket.

STAR had placed its candidates in a total of 70 parliamentary and state seats in Sabah.

For parliamentary seats, except for Keningau and Pensiangan seats, all other STAR candidates lost their deposits, mostly finishing third behind either the BN or the peninsula-controlled Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance.

The party’s candidates also fared badly in state seats with majority losing their deposits too, some only garnering a few hundreds votes.

Days after the election Jeffrey admitted he was surprised by the poor performance of his party in Sabah especially after the warm reception it got from the people when they held political campaigns.

The more than 1,000 Borneo ‘tea-parties’ that the United Borneo Front (UBF), an NGO linked to STAR that took on the role of educating the people on Sabah’s history seemed to have failed to get the message across as the final results from the ballot boxes show.

The party’s election manifesto, launched days before nomination, was trumpeted as among the best alternatives for Sabah with fresh initiatives, but failed to attract Sabahan voters to the party.

Party insiders blame the delay in launching the manifesto as one reason the content of the “attractive” manifesto failed to reach the masses.

It has since come to light that not many STAR manifesto booklets were able to be distributed to the people during the campaigning period, something that the party had failed to notice.

But observers have always stated that STAR was on the back foot in the media propaganda wars.

Leadership issue

Leaders of the party had also complained that Jeffrey had hobbled his colleagues, preventing them from making statements without his consent.

“Delegation of power and responsibility was not given due thought. Discipline was low and decisions were not always right. Where a decisive step was easy to make, the leadership failed to seize the opportunity.

“In the end, those who suddenly popped up at the gate were given candidacy out of nowhere and it really portrayed a bad image for a party that had tried to project an image of fighters rather than opportunists,” said one leader who requested anonymity.

However, another STAR insider said Jeffrey should not be blamed entirely for the party’s below-average performance as he worked with party leaders who helped him decide on party policy.

Meanwhile, there have also been reports within the party that the party might reshuffle both its national council and state committee soon. There is even talk that that the Sarawak-based party and its president Dripin Sakoi is willing to let Jeffrey helm the party.

However, not all in Sarawak, including its other senior leaders in Sarawak, are in favour of the idea.