KOTA KINABALU: Sabah STAR is poised to leave Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) if it pushes ahead with plans for an electoral pact with Pakatan Harapan for the coming state election.
Insisting that GRS go solo to meet the aspirations of the people for local representation, Sabah STAR president Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan will meet with the eight-party GRS presidential council Wednesday (Oct 1) night.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Kitingan said if the presidential council meeting chaired by GRS chairman Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor decides to go ahead with an electoral pact with Pakatan, then Sabah STAR would leave.
"The way I look at it, when I met the CM (Hajiji) a few days ago, they had already decided. So if they have decided, the presidential meeting will be just an endorsement now.
"But if at the last minute he (Hajiji) says, 'okay, we listen to the people, we go solo', then I go along with it," Kitingan said.
Kitingan said that he had initially asked that Pakatan defend only its seven incumbent seats using the GRS logo.
In fact, Kitingan said the GRS supreme council agreed to 15 of the 73 state seats but now he was told that it was about to give Pakatan 21 to 23 seats as part of the electoral pact deal.
"The most I could have agreed is if they (Pakatan) maintain the seven seats," he said, adding that all GRS parties were using the GRS logo but Pakatan did not want to.
"If GRS goes solo, I go along. If they don't, then I can't go along because that is going against the sentiment of the majority of the people. And I can't go against them (the people).
"They (the people) are the ones deciding, voting. How can I go against the people?" he said, adding that Sabah STAR's stand on the matter was based on real grassroots sentiment.
He said that during a meeting with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, he had said that the sentiment for local parties was strong.
On whether native-based Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) would follow Sabah STAR's decision to leave if the pact goes through, Kitingan said that though the two parties had a memorandum of understanding, it was unlikely that PBS would follow them.
Kitingan said Sabah STAR wants to provide the opportunity for people who want GRS to go solo.
"If we don't go solo, they will not support us. If we stay with GRS in a pact with Pakatan, we will be rejected by the voters," he added.
On the ongoing allegations of corruption by a businessman, he said he had been through such investigations by federal agencies during the time when he was Yayasan Sabah director during the Parti Bersatu Sabah state government in the late 1980s and 1990s.
"Well, they did the same thing to me during PBS time. They said I stole, that I was corrupted and took RM4bil in Yayasan Sabah," he said, adding that it was the same thing happening all over again.
"Eventually when they couldn't find anything, I was detained under the Internal Security Act," he said, adding that it did not break his spirit.
"It (the latest allegations) is to destroy my image. And then to weaken GRS. And then to frighten my people, especially my YBs (elected assemblyman).
"So, even if I have to go it alone, I'll go alone. Even if my YBs abandon me, I will go myself," he said, adding that he would not be surprised if his assemblymen were also under pressure.
"I am a leader for the people. I have a struggle. My mission is to stand up for the people," he said.
