KOTA KINABALU: STAR Sabah chairman Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan has claimed that his brother Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who is his brother, has been making up stories to try to retain his support from the voters in Keningau and Tambunan.
He said in a statement here yesterday that Pairin is also trying hard to curry up more favour with his BN bosses by continuously heaping praises on the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister.
Jeffrey was responding to Pairin’s accusation that “my own brother (Dr Jeffrey) took his friends from Yayasan Sabah with him and as a result we lost the Kadazandusun people there.”
“I am shocked that my brother’s memory is already failing him,” said Jeffrey. “He has already forgotten that I was dismissed from my post as Yayasan Sabah director after the Umno-BN government wrested away power from PBS in 1994.”
“And he should also know that I was about to sue the government for wrongful dismissal, but they decided to avert a trial and paid me an out-of-court settlement,” he added. “Under such circumstances, how was I to take away my friends, and where would I take them to?”
Jeffrey also reminded Pairin that the reason there are no Kadazandusuns in senior positions in Yayasan Sabah today is because the government decided to radically reduce the number of employees in Yayasan Sabah in 2001 or 2002 by offering them VSS packages.
“So how on earth did Pairin come up with the silly idea that I was the cause of them leaving Yayasan Sabah?”
On another matter, Jeffrey said he regretted that in a speech in Tambunan on Friday night Pairin asked why the people were supporting the opposition when the government is busy giving away gifts to them in the form of gravity water, balairayas and others.
“Is Pairin saying that after 49 years of independence, BN is only able to give gravity water and balairayas?” he asked.
“Why not give something more substantial like piped water, roads for the villages, and economic programmes to make them financially self-reliant?
“It is exactly because of this lethargy of the government that is causing the people to look for change, and they see this opportunity in the opposition parties which have more innovative ideas,” Jeffrey asserted.