KOTA KINABALU: Sabah STAR claims it has received reports of certain parties offering money to their division leaders and members to quit the party.
Its president Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said the allegations started several days ago and they expect several affected divisions to announce their resignation from Sabah STAR.
“I was told that two divisions have started to get these calls and had a meeting where they were asked to resign and make an announcement of quitting STAR soon. They were asked how much (money) they want,” he said in a press conference here on Sunday (Oct 26).
“This means money politics is here again and it is going to go on and I suspect this will happen,” he said.
Kitingan claimed that some parties were targeting Sabah STAR leaders who were not being chosen as candidates, while other candidates might be offered money to leave the party.
“We’ve already received two reports, two areas, and I am very sad to hear this. This is exactly what has been happening in the past and now,” he said.
He has accused federal politicians of playing the ‘cash is king’ sentiment and warned Sabahans not to fall into their trap.
He urged local folks to fight against money politics and put local parties back into power, citing Sarawak’s efforts to unite for their rights.
“Look at Sarawak, they are ahead of Sabah now. So what does this teach us? It means that Sabahans must put their foot down and fight for their rights until the Malaysia Agreement 1963 and other rights are fulfilled,” said Kitingan.
He said if these rights were not fulfilled, there was no reason for Sabah to be in the Federation.
On other matters, when asked about his Gerakan Bersatu Sabah and S4S (Sabah for Sabah) movement, he said the focus now was to gather the local parties and enter the elections with victory first.
“We’ll formalise the coalition or gabungan or gerakan after the state election,” he said, adding that all local parties were welcome.
Kitingan said there was no use pushing for Sabah for Sabah if certain local parties were sidelined or not allowed to join them.
As for the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition led by Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor, who is working with Sabah Pakatan in this coming state polls, he feared that such arrangements between local and federal parties would somewhat compromise Sabah’s claims to its state rights, including the 40% net revenue owed.
