Jeffrey tells Anwar to stay away from Sabah

Sabah strongman Jeffrey Gapari bin Kitingan has advised Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) advisor Anwar Ibrahim in no uncertain terms that he's not welcome in Sabah at the moment.

The PKR supremo is scheduled to visit Sabah tomorrow with several high-ranking PKR leaders from the party headquarters.

Jeffrey's advice to Anwar follows the decision on Wednesday by the PKR disciplinary committee to recommend that 12 of his hardcore supporters be suspended. Anwar reportedly wants them sacked.

It was learnt that Jeffrey (right) advised Anwar in a text message this morning to "postpone your trip to Sabah to another day after we have restored the situation".

The party, Jeffrey noted, is making the wrong move (on the 12) and undoing a great deal of repair work by announcing the suspension recommendation. This, he reckoned, was like having agreed to a reconciliation and moved on, (only) to suddenly go back and deny that there was one, and rehash the whole thing again.

This is just so that "we are disqualified to contest in the party election, to the advantage of the complainant!", he wrote.

Jeffrey described the whole chain of events from the issue of the show cause letter on July 23 to the announcement of the recommendation of the suspension of the 12 by secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution yesterday, as "ridiculous".

"The whole thing is wrong," said Jeffrey. "(It) reflects badly on (the) leadership."

'Either sack/suspend or reconcile'

The decision eight months ago, continued Jeffrey, should have been to sack/suspend or reconcile. "The party has chosen to reconcile. You cannot do both. This is exactly what the party is doing".

He ended the text message by urging Anwar: "Please think!"

Saifuddin's office confirmed that they received a copy of Jeffrey's text message this morning to Anwar (left).

Apparently, the message was also received by lawyer and PKR vice-president Sivarasa Rasiah, Kota Kinabalu division chief Christina Liew Chin Jin Hadhikusumo, Daniel John Jambun, one of the 12 facing suspension and deputy chairperson of the powerful Sabah PKR KadazanDusunMurut Task Force, and two others known only by their initials as P and TP.

One guess is that P could be the elder Kitingan in politics, Joseph Pairin, the Deputy Chief Minister, president of the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) and Huguan Siou (paramount chief) of the KadazanDusunMurut. Jeffrey has a standing invitation from Pairin to re-join PBS.

It's not known now whether Anwar will still be making the visit.

Several PKR leaders who were supposed to accompany him on his Sabah trip have excused themselves.

They include senior party activists Chui Jui Meng, Michael Bong, David Yeo and PKR director of strategy Tian Chua. All of them put together the peace plan of Dec 6 for Sabah PKR.

courtesy of Malaysiakini