KENINGAU: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the worst prime minister for Sabah, said Sabah STAR chairman Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan here.
“He introduced ‘Project IC’ and told me not to ‘teach’ the people what they didn’t know (Sabah rights),” he said in his statement via Whatsapp yesterday.
Jeffrey, who is also Bingkor state assemblyman, added Mahathir brought Umno to Sabah and forever changed Sabah’s political landscape.
“I agree with Dr Maximus’ statement. In fact, I was detained almost three years (under the Internal Security Act) by Mahathir for raising up the 20 Points and questioning the federal government’s unjust treatment of Sabah.
“He was annoyed when I questioned him about Sabah’s oil rights and he told me: ‘Jeffrey, there was no oil before Malaysia’.”
“Mahathir even suggested to me that land matters should be under the federal government,” he said.
Jeffrey said the damage to Sabah under Mahathir’s dictatorship could only be healed if Tun M could bring Umno and all Project IC holders out of Sabah and restore Sabah’s constitution prior to 1976.
He was commenting on Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) deputy president Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Maximus Ongkili’s statement yesterday.
Maximus said Mahathir’s admission that he was a dictator during his 22-year reign as Malaysia’s prime minister “is a classic understatement of the century.”
The Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister added this to his description of Mahathir: “He was a tyrant, bully and oppressor, especially towards Sabah political leaders.”
During Mahathir’s rule, PBS withdrew from Barisan Nasional on the eve of the 1990 general election due to dissatisfaction over what was seen as indifference by the federal government over issues of concern in Sabah, such as illegal immigrants and Borneonisation.
The party had also accused Mahathir of being behind the issuance of Malaysian citizenships to illegal immigrants to erode support for PBS and to wrest the state from the PBS-led state government.
He also had the Internal Security Act (ISA) to silence critics, Maximus pointed out and referred to Mahathir’s claim that even though he was a dictator, no one went to the streets to demonstrate against him.
“Says who (that no one protested against Dr Mahathir)? Many of us who questioned his policies and actions ended up being detained under the ISA. (Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri) Zahid Hamidi and I myself ended up 59 days in detention by Mahathir’s orders,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.