March launch for Jeffrey’s ‘new’ party

Luke Rintod

UBF chief Jeffrey Kitingan is aiming for a Borneo Alliance which will play a vital role in deciding who will eventually rule Putrajaya.

ENTILIBON: Barring any “incidents”, Sabah and Sarawak will soon have a “Borneo Alliance” that can collectively “hold” the 56 parliamentary seats in the states and be in a position to decide the fate of peninsula-based political coalitions.

Revealing this to villagers here, some 240km from Kota Kinabalu, United Borneo Front (UBF) chief Jeffrey Kitingan said: “Nanti Mac ini kita akan lancar parti baru kita… (in March we will launch our new party)… the new party will work together with SNAP (Sarawak National Party) and there will be a Borneo Alliance that can hold (pegang 56 kerusi parlimen) the 56 parliamentary seats in Sabah and Sarawak.”

Explaining further, he said there are altogether 222 parliamentary seats in Malaysia and the 166 seats, which were in Peninsular Malaysia, will likely see a “50-50 (situation) between Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat” in the 13th general election.

“When that happens, both groups will look to us… making Sabah and Sarawak’s combined 56 seats a deciding factor of what kind of government would rule in Putrajaya,” he said to roars of approval from the about 250 local leaders who came to listen to his hour-long talk on Saturday.

His remarks were greeted with enthusiatic shouts of “cepat, cepat datuk” (do it quick datuk) and “jangan lama-lama, datuk” (don’t wait too long datuk).

Jeffrey got them in stictches when he replied coyly: “If you can wait for 47 years, can’t you wait for a month or two?”

However, several attempts to get Jefffey to elaborate on the “new party” proved futile.

He declined to confirm if the “soon-to-be revealed party” would be a “new” or “an existing party”.

‘Not PKR agenda’

Earlier in his talk here, which is part of UBF’s “Borneo Tea Party” series, Jeffrey explained his exit from the peninsula-based PKR party.

Jeffrey, a former PKR vice-president, said he had to leave because the KL-centric party did not want to listen to Sabah and Sarawak.

“For four years I tried but in vain. PKR is only interested to grab power in Putrajaya, using us in Sabah and Sarawak without considering our views and aspirations.

“Our Borneo agenda is not PKR agenda.

“Until now we don’t even know who is the PKR leader in Sabah. The top PKR leadership will just appoint anybody.

“They do not care to listen to us. Even the PKR constitution stipulates that our JKKK (village committee) chairmen must be appointed by Kuala Lumpur. We do not agree,” he said.