PKR is worse than Umno, alleges ex-PKR division chief

By Raymond Tombung

KOTA KINABALU: Former PKR Sepangar Chief, Felix Sitaun said he left the party for STAR because he saw STAR as the real hope for Sabah.

“I now fully believe that Sabah should be governed by local parties, not by parties from the Peninsular,” he said in statement here. “And I can see that if PKR rules Sabah, it will be even worse that the present Umno/BN state government.”

He said this is because PKR’s constitution and rules require that if it ruled the country, all local appointments must be made from Kuala Lumpur, from the appointment of the Chief Minister and all the way to the appointment of Ketuas Kampung and JKKK Chairmen.

“I was shocked when I found about this. And that caused me to lose faith in the party and for 18 months I was inactive due to my disappointment and sense of guilt,” Sitaun said. “After much soul searching I realized my true struggle is for the rights of the people of Sabah, not to promote colonialism by another Peninsular party like PKR.”

He said he would like to remind the acting PKR Sepangar chief, Timothy Thomas Lim, that the Malaysian Agreement promised Sabah self-rule, to be an independent nation in the Federation, not as one of the 13 states.

“And I would like to ask Lim and (Datuk Seri) Anwar (Ibrahim) what their stand is on the matter,” he asked. “If PR comes to power will Anwar continue to treat Sabah as one of the 13 states like Umno is treating Sabah now?”

He said that by saying the STAR cannot implement the 7-Point Borneo Agenda, he is saying Sabah should continue to be a colony of Malaya, and that he is not interested to fight for Sabah rights.

“By accusing STAR of making empty promises, Lim has started to sound like the BN who prefers to be a stooge of Kuala Lumpur,” Sitaun said. “As for STAR’s promises, the party has explained over and over again how the Borneo Alliance will implement its programs. And this will be laid out clearly in the forthcoming BA Manifesto.”

“What is difficult for Lim to explain is how Sabah PKR leaders can claim to fight for Sabah rights when the party they represent is a Peninsular party,” Sitaun said. “And where is the rationale for choosing a PKR-led state government which will be more autocratic than Umno?”

“Timothy should accept that nobody can help us except we the people of Sabah itself. We have to fight for our rights all the way to the end even if we have to go to the international court of justice. Remember Malaya will promise everything but remember what happened to the promises made in the Malaysia Agreement.

“Lim’s contention that Sabah for Sabahans is parochial shows his lack of knowledge of the history on the formation of Malaysia. Sabah became the poorest state simply because Sabah was not for Sabahans, with its resources being shared by 13 states. An equal and autonomous partner should be able to formulate policies on its own in order to progress and decide its own destiny.

“If the appointment of even village heads are to be made by KL, it simply shows PKR’s arrogance and colonialistic tendencies, “Sitaun added. “And we are already suffering from a lot of Malaya’s colonialistic rule. Yayasan Malacca and Yayasan Selangor both have huge swaths of land in Sabah for which we get nothing in return. If PKR is really serious about equal partnership it should not interfere with the political and administrative rights of the Borneo states. It should instead focus on taking care of Malaya and let the local parties manage Sabah. Only then you can call this as respecting the equal partnership.

“In the case of a BA State government for Sabah and Sarawak, we will have the autonomy to amend the state laws, to create new ones in order to strengthen state powers,” he said. “We can then demand for higher oil royalty, and to solve the problem of illegal immigrants by enforcing the state’s rights over immigration matters.”