Pairin and PBS going against the wishes of Sabahans, says close friend

PENAMPANG : A local veteran activist who was active with the now-defunct UNKO, Fredoline Edwin Lojingki, said he has had enough of increasingly UMNO-leaning Joseph Pairin Kitingan and PBS lately, now lost confidence in Pairin to continue leading, especially the natives.

Lojingki, 71, who claimed to be a close friend of Pairin and many in PBS at one time, alleged that PBS has deviated from its original struggle to safeguard the state and the people especially the Kadazandusun community.

"Pairin has been more and more detached from the aspiration of the grassroots, sometimes appeared to chose UMNO and self-interests ahead of the Sabahans, and i could not support such leadership anymore," he said in a statement issued here today.

Lojingki said Pairin's statement on the NCR today which was carried by local newspapers in which he said he would wait for Musa's leadership and Cabinet decision on the NCR issue as something not a right thing for a Kadazandusun Huguan Siou to say.

"The least Pairin could do was to state his own mind on the legal issue of NCR. Why must wait for Musa or the State Cabinet ? The reporters asked him for his opinion on the NCR legality and all he said was he would wait for the Cabinet to discuss, as if he and his party PBS have no opinion or stand over it. This is frustrating many people," he said.

Wishing his old friend good luck, Lojingki said he has decided to join Pairin's younger brother Dr Jeffrey in State Reform Party (STAR). "This is the time we must unite under a new leader, if not now, then when else?" he adding that only time will tell if he has made the right decision.