Will Jeffrey take Azmin’s hand?

G Vinod

PKR deputy president Azmin Ali is open to working with Jeffrey Kitingan as long as he accepts Pakatan Rakyat's terms.

PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Rakyat has ‘not discounted’ the possibility of working with United Borneo Front (UBF), a Sabah based NGO, pushing for a Borneo Agenda in the 13th general election.

PKR vice-president Azmin Ali said the coalition is ready to work with any party as long as it is not aligned to BN.

“We have not discounted the possibility (of working with UBF). But they should be able to accept Pakatan’s common policy framework and they should not be aligned to BN,” said Azmin yesterday on the sidelines of a Pakatan Rakyat meeting.

UBF is led by former PKR vice-president Jeffrey Kitingan. Kitingan set up UBF in 2009 right after he resigned from the party following a fallout with the PKR leadership in Kuala Lumpur. Many attributed the ‘fallout’ to Azmin’s interference.

Since then PKR has not been able to effectively ‘revive’ itself on the Sabah front.

Bearing in mind Kitingan’s history with PKR, it is left to be seen how UBF will view Azmin’s statement.

Last month Kitingan announced the formation of a Borneo Alliance as a Third Force to rival both Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat.

He openly invited members of BN and Pakatan coalitions to ‘quit’ their parties and join Borneo Alliance to fight for the restoration of Sabah and Sarawak rights as per their respective 20 and 18-point Malaysia Agreement 1963.

Also last month it was reported that the Kitingan’s Third Force will support either the ruling BN or Pakatan, when the necessity arises, to form the federal government.

Pakatan seats

Meanwhile on seat-allocations in Sabah and Sarawak in preparation for the general election, Azmin said the coalition was still in negotiation.

“Seat-allocations in Sabah and Sarawak have not been settled yet but we are in the final stages of negotiations.

“We need to spend some time when it comes to Sabah and Sarawak due to results of the previous Sarawak polls.

“We have not aligned ourselves with any local parties there yet but we are closely monitoring the situation on the ground,” he said alluding to the opposition’s historic performance in Sarawak last April.

In the Sarawak polls, Pakatan partners DAP and PKR won a total 15 seats. DAP won 12 seats while PKR won three.

The historic win also saw a shocking decline in voter support for the Taib Mahmud-led state BN coalition.

Strive in DAP and PAS

Azmin was also asked if the coalition was affected by the current internal strife in DAP and PAS.

“It’s normal for any political party to have issues from time to time. Even Umno, MCA, MIC have their problems. However, I believe the matter has been resolved,” he said.

He said this when asked to comment on Selangor exco for Islamic Affairs, Hasan Ali who was on a collision course with PAS after he claimed the party had deviated from its Islamic principles.

Although Hasan later apologized to the party leadership for his outbursts, rumblings of dissent continues.
Meanwhile in DAP, Penang deputy chief minister P Ramasamy has been at the receiving end of party chairman, Karpal Singh after he allegedly told English daily The Star that there was a plot to oust him.

Although he denied making the statement, Karpal has demanded Ramasamy to step down from his position.