Pakatan to fight Sabah BN alone
Sabah Pakatan will not engage in any more talk with local parties and will focus instead on solidifying its agenda with Lajim Ukin and Wilfred Bumburing’s groups.
KOTA KINABALU: Pakatan Rakyat will walk alone in Sabah and that means no more discussions or negotiations with local parties. It also means that Sabah will once again see multi-cornered fights in almost every constituency in the state.
In the 2008 general election, Sabah had the most number of constituencies with multi-cornered fights. Many had hoped that this time round the situation would be different.
Disclosing Sabah Pakatan’s decision, its chief Anwar Ibrahim said the coalition will not engage in any more talk with local parties and will focus on solidifying its agenda in Sabah together with its new allies Pertubuhan Pakatan Perubahan Sabah (PPPS) and Angkatan Perubahan Sabah (APS).
PPPS is led by Beaufort MP and former Umno warlord Lajim Ukin and APS by Tuaran MP William Bumburing. Bumburing was formerly the deputy president of UPKO, a partner in Barisan Nasional.
Both Lajim and Bumburing and some of their key supporters quit BN in July last year throwing their support behind Anwar.
Since then there have been reports of trouble within Sabah PKR as a result of Lajim’s ‘incursion’. But Anwar has balked at such talk.
With the increasing influence of Lajim and Bumburing in the picture, negotiations with local parties have also been slowly but surely sidelined.
Yesterday, following a Sabah Pakatan coalition meeting, Anwar told reporters that Pakatan will take on Sabah BN on its own.
“Our meeting is to solidify our stand and agendas in Sabah, all three member parties and our alliances, APS and PPPS are on same page.
“There are no other parties. Many of their (other parties’) statements conflicted with our stand in Pakatan so we will continue with our agendas for changes (alone),” he said.
SAPP and STAR alone
Anwar is believed to be alluding to both Sabah Progressive Peoples Party (SAPP) led by former chief minister Yong Teck Lee and State Reform Party (STAR) chairman Jeffrey Kitingan.
Both parties have been, from time to time, rumoured to be ‘in negotiations’ or ‘being financed’ by BN or its agents.
Both have denied these rumours saying that the speculations were engineered by PKR, a Pakatan member.
SAPP and STAR have refused to budge from their Sabah for Sabahans and Borneo Agenda stand.
