Terrence, Jeffrey
PENAMPANG: STAR Sabah president Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan has been reminded to play an important role as part of the Federal Cabinet through his actions instead of making continuous media statements for mere political mileage purposes.
Treasurer general of Parti Warisan Sabah, Terrence Siambun, said Sabahans particularly the Kadazandusun Muruts (KDMs) are now beginning to feel disappointed to see that there is no concrete action coming from Jeffrey apart from endless barage of statements condemning Warisan and Pakatan Harapan (PH).
“He has been appointed to be part of the Federal Cabinet on March 9, 2020 and being someone who had been so vocal in criticizing everything relating to Sabah, we would expect him to go down to business at once and materialize whatever ‘formulas’ he had in mind all these years.
“But now we see him as nothing but an empty can – instead of getting the Federal Cabinet to proceed with his proposals for the massive deportation of the PTIs (illegal immigrants), establishment of a homeland security ministry, a separate federal and state committee to deal with illegal immigrants and reviving the Sabah border scout unit as what he had said just early this year when he objected to the PSS (Sabah Temporary Pass), he suddenly proposed more talks on the PTI issue through his forum.
“Worst, he continues to put all the blame regarding the PTI issue to Warisan and PH – he is now in the Federal Cabinet and has the chance to show us all what he can do,” he said in a statement here yesterday.
Siambun said now Jeffrey is telling us that the document on the Double 6 tragedy must be declassified by the Federal Government.
“I’m perplexed here – is he telling us that he is so weak that he need to get our support despite him being in the Federal Cabinet or even as one of the party presidents in Perikatan Nasional (PN) sitting together with Umno and PAS?
“Did he actually brief the PM and other Federal Cabinet ministers on this matter earlier on and received their responses as to whether they’re agreeable or not (to the declassification) before coming out with his statement?”
Siambun pointed out if the PN Federal Government would have objected, then his statement was justifiable but nowhere in his statement did he say that this was so – instead he conveniently blamed PH and this was why he was only using the tragedy as a show for his political mileage.
“So I don’t think that the Sabahans will be wrong to deduce that Jeffrey is all about NATO (No Action Talk Only) – he knows that he is very weak within the federal level or even PN and has to remain subservient to them so the only way for him to remain relevant politically in the eyes of the KDM voters is to make continuous emotive statements while at the same time, blaming everything on Warisan and PH,” he added.
Siambun also reminded Jeffrey on the latter’s formulas regarding the oil royalty issue which the latter had spoken earlier.
“Last year, he told Petronas and other oil companies to stop pumping oil in Sabah if they cannot come up with the 20 percent oil royalty and on top of that, Sabahan leaders should not bow to Malaya on this issue.
“So since he knew what to do and he now has access to the PM and Federal Cabinet, then I want to see him to support the cause for Sabah instead of continuously talking about how Sabah had been robbed of its own oil and he himself had said it that the current five percent is a cash payment payable by Petronas under Section 4 of the Petroleum Development Act, 1974 in return for the ownership and the rights, powers, liberties and privileges of the oil and gas resources vested to Petronas by the state and is not royalty at all.
“He himself had said that the review on the oil royalty should be made between 30 percent and 50 percent so I am looking forward for Jeffrey to play his part to accommodate his Federal Government for a fresh round of negotiation with the State Government to trash out this issue,” he said.
Since the oil royalty is a matter that requires a negotiation between the Federal and State Governments, Siambun hoped that Jeffrey would do his part for the cause of Sabah and would not forfeit his own words this time.
“But just in case he think that it is very difficult to convince the PM and his friends at the Federal Cabinet on the fresh round of negotiation, then I suggest him to do forum which he loves very much to be attended by all the relevant stakeholders such as the Federal and State ministers, Petronas, IDS, oil companies operating in Sabah and so on,” he concluded.