Ansari, Thamrin in race to be Sabah PKR chief

By Luke Rintod of FMT
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah PKR has again split into two camps over who will lead the opposition party in the state. The battle this time is between incumbent Ahmad Thamrin Jaini and lawyer Ansari Abdullah.

It appears that Dr Jeffrey Kitingan is no more in the picture either by design or default but supporters of the wily politician are backing Thamrin for the post of state PKR chief.

When the state liaison committee met here for the first time last night after the party congress last month, Jeffrey was not even mentioned by divisional heads aligned to him, to be considered for the post .

A divisional head who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the majority of the 23 (out of 25) divisions represented, wanted incumbent Ahmad Thamrin Jaini to be retained.

Only Jeffrey, who heads Pensiangan division and Christina Liew, the Kota Kinabalu were not at the meeting.

"Only the Batu Sapi head, Hassnar Ebrahim, was vocal in having Ansari Abdullah (photo) for the post. The majority wanted Thamrin retained. None recommended Jeffrey, not even his men," he said.

PKR secretary-general, Saifudin Nasution Ismail, according to insiders, had hard time chairing the three-hour meeting which started at 11.30am.

According to them, more time was spent on discussing the concluded Batu Sapi by-election rather than the main agenda, to pick PKR state liaison chief.

They claimed Hassnar was very dominating and threw accusations of sabotage, and suggestions were made that Ansari be appointed as one of PKR vice presidents.

KL controling state

Observers noted that it appeared Jeffrey may have asked divisional heads aligned to him to throw their support behind Thamrin.

It is learned that 18 out of the 25 divisional heads have signed a memorandum to party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to have Thamrin retained as state chief.

Six division heads who refused to sign it were Tuaran (Ansari), Kota Marudu (Anthony Mandiau), Ranau (Jonathan Yasin - Ansari's brother-in law), Tenom (Halik Zaman - Ansari's uncle), Papar (James Ghani) and Batu Sapi (Hassnar).

Insiders also said that lawyer James Ghani and Mandiau are to leave for Kuala Lumpur to lobby for Ansari. Both James and Mandiau were vocal at the meeting to let the president decide who would be Sabah chief.

This was the among the very issues Jeffrey and many others in Sabah PKR did not like, as it showed PKR was no better than Umno when it comes to Sabah's matters - KL always wants to dictate and control the state.

Saifudin told the meeting that based on the discussions, he would present a report to the party president.

According to sources the new state chief would be announced by Dec 18.

Jeffrey's two-month leave will end on Thursday (Dec 16) and he has so far refused to talk about his plans
.