TAMBUNAN:
Parti Keadilan Rakyat vice president Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan yesterday advised Datuk Seri Pairin Kitingan to retire gracefully and accept the fact that “change is blowing very hard into Sabah and everybody can feel it”. Making the call in front of over 2,000 Jeffrey supporters at TVRC Tambunan yesterday, Dr Jeffrey urged his elder brother to step down and protect the Kadazandusun Murut (KDM) community through strengthening the KDCA in his capacity as the Huguan Siou. “I will always respect my brother and I cannot deny that he has brought great contributions to the development of Tambunan and Keningau. But he is now sounding more like the Umno leaders when he is telling his own people that the development will stop if they do not vote for BN. “He did not realise that it was at this point when PBS was given the mandate by the people back in the 1984 election where the Government took away the district administration in Tambunan and yet the people backed him up no matter what. “Is he telling us that the BN Government will do the same if the people of Tambunan choose the opposition again this time? It was the same threats given by BERJAYA to the people not to vote for PBS. Now he is sounding more like them now and I believe that the people are wise and politically matured to decide that change will prevail here in Sabah,” said Jeffrey in a statement yesterday. “He even admitted it in his press statement that Umno at that time stopped all developments for Tambunan because he was in the opposition party, but I do believe that if the people have given you the mandate to fight for injustice in Sabah, we must accept and respect the vote given to us by the people and not simply surrender to BN,” he added. Meanwhile, a man claiming to be a family friend of the Kitingans, Hj Jaafar Abdullab @ Ricky Kimsuan, joined in the siblings’ rivalry yesterday by asking Pairin to stop bashing his younger brother Jeffrey, who is spearheading PKR to correct wrongs in the State. “Pairin please lab you have been in power for more than 30 years, with 10 years as Chief Minister, what else do you want to do now that you could not have achieved the past 30 years? “Don’t say Dr Jeffrey ‘melompat sana sinilah’, Pairin also ‘melompat’ from BN to opposition and then back to BN now. A president should not ‘melompat sana sini’,” saidHj Jaafar in a statement yesterday. Hj Jaafar, once an ardent follower of PBS, who claims now to be a consultant to Dr Jeffrey, said while the people have seen the best of Pairin, they have yet to see the best of Dr Jeffrey, simply because he is not in a position to decide on priorities and policies.
