KOTA KINABALU: Sabah STAR president Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan can leave the unity government coalition if he can no longer work with member parties, says Sabah PKR.
Its state leadership council secretary, Sazalye Donol said a recent statement from Kitingan during a Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) youth launching programme calling peninsula-based political parties as colonisers and traitors, was insensitive and uncalled for.
“This affects the stability and peace of the nation, especially Sabah,” he said in a statement Monday (Dec 9).
During the event on Sunday (Dec 8), Kitingan referred to Sabah leaders in peninsula-based parties as traitors. He urged them to stop being traitors and instead become patriots to the state.
Kitingan also said this after saying on how these political parties were not satisfied with holding 75% of the Parliamentary seats and still want to go after the remaining 25% held by Sabah and Sarawak.
He said that peninsula-based political parties have expressed their intention to contest in the coming Sabah elections and to run for all 73 state seats.
“This time, we will give them a huge egg (meaning zero seats),” he was heard saying.
Sazalye said Sabah PKR understood the fight and struggle to get back state rights under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), but everything has to be done carefully under the spirit of ‘family’, in line with the unity government.
“To label peninsula-based parties as colonisers and its leaders as traitors is too much, and sounds provocative,” he said.
He said it is not a violation of any federal constitution for these peninsula-based parties to be in Sabah, and its leaders are not traitors as accused and labelled by Kitingan.
Sazalye said such labelling and accusations were irresponsible and could be categorised as a form of incitement or instigation.
“So we challenge Kitingan to immediately leave the GRS coalition if he can no longer work with parties in the unity government,” he stressed.
