Basal
KOTA KINABALU: STAR Sabah president Dr Jeffrey Kitingan had been criticised for accusing Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) of protecting and harbouring illegal immigrants in Sabah after the Warisan treasurer general, Terrence Siambun, snubbed Jeffrey’s proposed forum on the issue recently.
According to Warisan Keningau deputy divisional chief Basal Bullah, Jeffrey was throwing accusations at Warisan on the illegal immigrants issue in order to hide his inability to act as a strong Sabahan leader by diverting the people’s attention from his decision to work together with Umno and PAS under Perikatan Nasional (PN).
“Terrence is correct to say that Jeffrey is all NATO (no action talk only); Jeffrey is
now part of the Federal Government and sitting together with Umno and PAS in PN so he should be now doing the ‘delivery’ instead of asking for more talk on the issue.
“I take it that since Jeffrey has been talking about the issue for decades now, he would have all the solutions in his head and would submit his proposal immediately to the Federal Cabinet upon his entry to PN.
“This is more so when he is a staunch opposer of PSS and told everyone that it was a bad idea. Hence we would expect a better alternative from him but what came from him instead is more talk through a forum,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Basal believed that as an elected representative who claimed to be doing everything for Sabah, Jeffrey should have put all the specific conditions favouring Sabah in written form as guarantee and have it signed by PN leaders before joining that coalition.
He said when Jeffrey was in PKR, he came out with the Tambunan Declaration which he claimed was rejected by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and that would have been a good reason for his famous cliche.
“So based on this premise, did he actually prepare a written document highlighting the conditions for PN to fulfill and to be signed by all its leaders before he decided to join Umno and PAS in that coalition?
“I assume there was none apart from perhaps some chat over coffee with Zahid Hamidi during the horse-trading session back in February this year and being a so-called ‘third force’ leader who repeatedly said that ‘he is doing it for Sabah’, this is indeed very regrettable for he wasted a golden opportunity for Sabah.
“This is the point that YB Terrence wants to highlight; in the eyes of Sabahans and his supporters, Jeffrey with all his extravaganza and pomposity wrongfully demonized Warisan leaders but in the eyes of PN, he may be a mere minion because a single seat held by a politically inconsistent MP does not really matter for them,” he said.
Basal said that with Jeffrey’s triumphant return to Umno’s fold, Sabahans are now looking forward to a new era of principled politics where competency, vision and strong leadership form the fundamentals to create a progressive and financially strong Sabah.
“Sabahans are tired with all talk only and what more with Jeffrey’s inconsistency, non-committance and unrealibility guised under his famous cliche repeatedly harped by his supporters to the extent that Sabahans don’t bother to pay attention to it anymore.
“If you ask anyone on the street what they think about Jeffrey, the answer will always be the same – he used to be a beacon of hope for Sabah when he was young but lost all of it now because of his inconsistent stand.
“Even in Tambunan, Jeffrey will find it very hard to justify his action to ally himself with Umno, a tainted kleptocrat party and PAS that only has Hudud Law in its mind. People will always support you if you continue to fight for what is good for Sabah but the moment you trade your dignity for position under the guise of the struggles of Sabahans, I believe that could be your end,” he said.
Basal said there were things that you could not hide forever especially when it came to expectations and this was evidenced when Jeffrey immediately threw his support to Tan Seri Musa Aman right after the 14th general election ended.
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“By attempting to help Musa preserve his power in the state, isn’t Jeffrey actually helping to protect the illegal immigrants in Sabah?
“Where is his principle or ‘doing it for Sabah’ in this case? If Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal can defy Najib and form Warisan to fight him, why can’t Jeffrey continue to fight Musa?” he asked.
In contrast, he said Tun Mahathir Mohamad who is 95 years old continues to defy Umno no matter how much pressure they are putting on him and even our Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal who had been personally invited by Muhyiddin to join PN decided to stick with his principle by honoring the understanding between Warisan and Mahathir/PH and this earned him respect not only from PH but his political friends in PN too.
“This is what Sabahans yearn for; a strong Sabah leader who will be respected in Putrajaya through his consistent actions and on this respect, the peninsula will always know that Sabah is an equal partner and Sabahans are capable of administering the country effectively,” he said.
He added that this could only be achieved by sticking to principles and actions and not through the mere cliche of ‘doing it for Sabah’.
Basal continued as for Jeffrey’s continuous attack on Warisan that the party is harbouring and protecting the illegal immigrants in Sabah, his message to Jeffrey is, by all means, utilise the finding on RCI, walk the talk and please ask the Federal Cabinet to act on it by deporting them all.
“Since the Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was responsible for coming up with the PSS that was vehemently rejected by Jeffrey, he should make sure that the Federal Government will not come out with a revised version as a means to end the issue,” he concluded.