I’m desperate only for people – Jeffrey

Posted on July 24, 2012, Tuesday

KOTA KINABALU: STAR Sabah chairman Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said he is desperate only for the people of Sabah.

In a statement in response to Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department, Datuk Radin Malleh who said Jeffrey was a desperado, he said Sabah BN leaders should do the right things by supporting the Borneo Agenda.

He added that it is not his intention to be at loggerheads with Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan because “I continue to hold a lot of respect and love for him as an elder brother.”

“But because we are on different political platforms we have to disagree on a lot of things,” he said.

As to Radin’s claim that “if not for Pairin he wouldn’t be appointed the executive director of Yayasan Sabah and also nominated as an elected representative,” Jeffrey said that Radin had forgotten that he (Jeffrey) was appointed to the Yayasan Sabah post by Tan Sri Harris Salleh during the Berjaya government, and not by Pairin.

Jeffrey also said that he realized that the PBS leadership is trying very hard to belittle him by harping on the idea that he (Jeffrey) is just the little brother of Pairin, and that whatever he says against PBS is going against his elder brother.

“It is a very convenient psychological game to convince the people I will be just a little naughty boy forever,” he said. “But the people will judge us for what we are fighting for and not for our positions in the family.

“And now I am being warned about becoming ‘ousung’ (will be afflicted with bad luck for going against an elder),” he said.

“I think the greater bad luck will be for not speaking up for the people. It would go against my conscience to pretend there is no problem.

“But whatever it is, as far as I am concerned there is no love lost between me and my brother on a personal level, but family matters shouldn’t be dragged into politics.”

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