Jeffrey to continue pushing his campaign for Sabah’s rights

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (Star) president Jeffrey Kitingan won his Bingkor state seat in 2013 on the Sabah rights platform instead of taking the conventional route of promising development.

Five years on, the activist-turned-politician admitted he never expected to have achieved so much on that issue in such a short time.

“When I campaigned, I told the people I will bring the matter to the (state) assembly and fight for their rights. I have been able to do that. I was able to speak in public forums, even hand over a memorandum to Prime Minister Najib Razak.

“Although I have not succeeded in getting back those rights yet, I managed to raise the consciousness of the Sabah people to the point that everybody now is talking about it.

“It is now a mainstream issue in the whole country and almost every leader of political parties is speaking up,” he said.

At least now, he said, the prime minister has accepted that there are indeed Sabah’s rights and even established a committee to look into the matter.

At the same time, the Sabah government, once hostile to him, has become fellow advocates and willing to work together to pursue the state’s rights.

It is something beyond his expectation that all these could happen in a mere five years, said the man who was once detained for three years in the early 1990s under the now-abolished Internal Security Act for allegedly advocating the secession of Sabah.

As a result, he said, the relationship between him and the Sabah government has improved.

Also thanks to this issue, he has been able to persuade the government to bring development to the 97 villages in his constituency, although it was not part of his promise to the electorate of 16,644.

Within the past five years, Bingkor’s residents were given several projects such as clean water supply by the government and Jeffrey took credit for it.

He said it was his persistent requests that made the government do it.

“Smaller things I will provide from my own pocket. But bigger projects, I will ask from the government because, ultimately, it is their responsibility.

“I know which ministry to pursue and, besides, my brother (Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan) is the Keningau MP and he has the funds.

“Even as an opposition representative, I can do all these. It all depends on how you talk to people,” he said.

As a seasoned politician, Jeffrey knows that in the rural areas, the people are sensitive about deaths and the assemblymen are always expected to pay a visit.

This week, he attended the funeral of a 41-year-old mother who died of cancer, leaving behind her husband and three daughters. Last week, there were two funerals in the constituency.

“This is what saddens me and I can consider this my low point as a leader. I see so many deaths, and sometimes unnecessary ones. The people could survive with better healthcare. Accidents are preventable if alcohol consumption is controlled,” he said.

Among his electorate, many view the 70-year-old politician as someone approachable and ready to give a helping hand although some of them think he should do more to upgrade village roads.

Local Barisan Nasional (BN) supporters, however, said Jeffrey’s talk on Sabah rights will not put food on the table because what the people really need are jobs and a sustainable economy.

They also said Jeffrey is only using the people in Bingkor to further his own political ambition, even accusing him of brainwashing the people to secede from Malaysia.

Answering the allegations, Jeffrey said all he wants is to see Sabah prosper and the federal government keep their end of the bargain after signing the Malaysia Agreement in 1963.

“In the next election, I still see BN as Star’s main challenger. I don’t think other parties, including DAP, can cause us any problem despite what they say.

“Parti Warisan Sabah has been using my own brother Crispin to attack me. I don’t want to say anything bad about my own brother.

“I realised Warisan managed to pull a large crowd when they came here but most of them were former Umno members. On the other hand, Star is intact,” he said.

In the last election, Jeffrey won the seat after beating BN candidate Kennedy John Jie by a thin majority of 456 votes. He garnered 5,350 votes while John obtained 4,894 votes. PKR candidate Ahmad Shah Hussein Tambakau had 2,368 votes.

The majority of the people in Bingkor are farmers with 80% being of Dusun descent, 12% Chinese and the rest are of other races.

Jeffrey revealed that he would also be contesting the Keningau parliamentary seat again this coming election. He was beaten in 2013 by Pairin who won the seat after receiving 15,818 votes.

Jeffrey managed to get 11,900 while the other challenger Stephen Pandor of PKR obtained 7,825 votes. -FMT