Sapp made the right move: Jeffrey

The Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) has made the right move to move or support a motion of no confidence in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as prime minister, said PKR vice-president and Sabah PKR deputy chief Dr Jeffrey Kitingan.

“Why? This is because they understand the situation they are in right now, with their experience of the treatment of the federal government that must have been not to their expectations or below par,” he told Malaysiakini in Kota Kinabalu today.

Jeffrey was referring to the consensus reached among Sapp supreme council on Friday to endorse Yong's proposal for a motion of no-confidence in the PM.

Clearly, Jeffrey said, the federal government had failed to act effectively and decisively on issues such as the illegal immigrants commonly known among local people as Pendatang Tanpa Ijin or the acronym PTI and the so-called Projek IC and sometimes referred to as Project Mahathir ( under which it is claimed that hundreds of thousands of foreigners have been issued with identity cards and given the right to vote).

The voices of Sabahans calling for action had evidently fallen on deaf ears, he added.

The state senior opposition leader who was once an influential personality under the PBS state government led by his brother Jospeh Pairin Kitingan in the 1980s said '”the political system that is being applied to Sabah in the name of the BN but actually Umno is the one calling the shots , making the state's political franchise meaningless.”

It is something that must be changed, he said, adding that if not poverty will get worst despite the state being rich in natural resources and at one time was one of the richest states.

Jeffrey explained that the situation is getting worst as the BN government has raised the prices of fuel along with other essential goods.

Those living above the poverty level are now part of the poverty group in the country as a result - in other words, there are now more poor people.

Strong political will

The BN government has not taking concrete measures to deal with the problems in Sabah and Sarawak which are oil producing states, he said.

“Yong Teck Lee and Sapp realised that something must be done and if this could not be realised with the present leaders, they clearly feel they have to support the alternative system”, he reasoned.

“It requires strong political will to pull out of this political mess and look for solutions elsewhere,” he added, indicating the need not only for change to the present government but an alternative that is offered currently by Pakatan Rakyat.

“For this reason, I say that Yong and Sapp have done the right thing”, he said.

“Pakatan Rakyat is happy with this development but very disappointed with the other BN component parties which seem to be interested to retaining the status quo and in promoting self interests rather than stand up for Sabah and the people,” he said.

Jeffrey called on voters to punish the other BN parties in the next general election.

On the issuance of ICs to thousands of illegal immigrants in Ssbah, Jeffrey alleged that Umno has benefitted from such a scheme.

“Now the BN government is afraid the whole scheme will be discovered and the culprits identified.”

Jeffrey said there was a way to set things right in a humane way if the BN government wanted to resolve the problems of illegal immigrants.

“To set it right does not simply mean throwing them out because they are also human beings,” he said, adding that the first thing is to drop people given identification papers through dubious means from the electoral rolls.

“Identify who they are, then set a period of time to examine who should be eligible to apply for citizenship, ask them to apply and next decide what to do with those who are not eligible.

“If not they have to go back (to their countries of origin). For those children born here who do not know their countries of origin, a process ought to be found to deal with them so that they would have papers and become good citizens.”

Jeffrey expressed disappointment with BN component parties, particularly those in Sabah, which have not been vocal over such issues affecting the local populace.

“To me they want to remain as stooges of Umno,” he charged.

“But I also believe some of their leaders are about to do something for themselves because they believe in justice and in the interest of the nation,” he said.