Budget snub a ‘blessing in disguise’

Although there is no Budget cheer for Sabah
and Sarawak, the people in the two states
can now plan for alternative solutions in
the coming general election.

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah and Sarawak, which have been treated as Barisan Nasional’s “fix-deposit”, have been sidelined in Budget 2013.

But it is a “blessing in disguse” because the people in the two states can now plan for alternative solutions.

It appears that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, his advisers and the ruling BN are very confident that both states won’t slip away from BN grip at the coming general election.

This explains why they could afford not to deal with the prevailing “touchy” issues in Sabah and Sarawak.

Slighted by Anwar, SAPP out in the cold

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) appears to have parted ways with Pakatan Rakyat after initially showing signs of building ties with the peninsula-based opposition coalition.

The fallout stems from PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim informing SAPP president Yong Teck Lee that Pakatan was now bringing in Lajim Ukin and Wilfred Bumburing as his new trusted warlords in Sabah.

That decision was made known last month in a meeting room at a hotel here when Anwar met Yong and Jeffrey Kitingan, the Sabah chapter chairman of Sarawak-based State Reform Party (STAR).

Pairin may not defend Keningau seat

By Luke Rintod of FMT

Indications within PBS are that its
president Joseph Pairin Kitingan
is ready to retire but is being
held back by worried party leaders.

TAMBUNAN : It is almost certain now that Sabah’s longest- serving assemblyman and Deputy Chief Minister, Joseph Pairin Kitingan, will not be defending his parliamentary and state seats in the coming 13th general election.

Although Pairin, who is president of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), has in the past said that he was prepared to defend both his Keningau parliamentary and Tambunan state seats, signals from within his PBS indicate otherwise.

Pairin, 72, has been the Tambunan state assemblyman since 1976 when he first won the seat for Berjaya at the age 36. Ten years later in 1986, he started winning the Keningau parliamentary seat.

Pemimpin Pakatan mohon ampun pada rakyat Sabah

By Luke Rintod of FMT

Presiden PAS memohon ampun bagi pihak pemimpin
Semenanjung hingga menyebabkan rakyat Sabah
menderita hidup dalam kemiskinan.

TUARAN: Dalam apa yang disifatkan sebagai jujur dan tidak dijangka, Presiden PAS, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang memohon ampun dan maaf kepada rakyat Sabah atas segala perangai buruk para pemimpin dari Semenanjung selama 49 tahun sehingga rakyat Sabah kini menderita miskin walaupun negeri mereka sangat kaya.

Pemimpin ulung PAS itu dalam nada suara yang tersekat, berkata demikian ketika berucap pada sambutan memperingati ulangtahun

penubuhan Malaysia kali ke-49 di sebuah restoran di Tuaran pada malam Ahad.

Sabah BN confident of retaining Kota Belud seats

The State BN says judging from the progress the party
has brought and the sentiments of the people, it can
keep all three and one parliamentary seats.

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA BELUD: Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) is confident of retaining all four seats in the Kota Belud area in the coming general election.

The four seats are the three state constituencies of Tempasuk, Usukan and Kadamaian, and the sole parliamentary seat of Kota Belud. They are currently held by Sabah Umno and its strongest ally Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS).

Chief Minister Musa Aman, who was here for the BN Hari Raya open house celebration on Saturday, said he was happy to see the show of support here led by state Umno deputy chief, Salleh Said Keruak, who is also Umno divisional head for Kota Belud.

STAR first political party to sign TI pledge

By Luke Rintod of FMT

Twenty-five potential Sabah STAR election candidates have
signed an integrity pledge by Transparency International.

KOTA KINABALU: Transparency International (TI) has praised the State Reform Party (STAR) for being the first political party in Malaysia to sign an “integrity pledge” to be honourable and incorruptible at the coming general election.

TI-Malaysia president, Paul Low Seng Kuan, said he was happy that STAR has come forward as a group and signed the pledge at its first convention here today, ahead of a crucial general election, due by April next year.

“It is an important step taken to strengthen societal trust in our politicians and our democracy and governance. We must fight corruption as corruption has failed nations,” he said.

STAR promises sweeping reforms

Dr Jeffrey Kitingan has promised to create five 'states'
within Sabah and to decentralise land matters if
STAR forms the next government.

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: The country is headed for dramatic changes and a sweeping reforms if a loose election pact called United Borneo Alliance (UBA) led by State Reform Party (STAR) is to form the next Sabah state government.

Sabah STAR chairman, Jeffrey Kitingan, promised that if the alliance wins a simple majority in the 60-seat state assembly at the coming general election, the new government would reclaim its rights as a “negara” and an autonomous region with special rights as was originally agreed and not be just one of 13 states of Malaysia as it has evolved.

Lajim still a good bet for opposition

 By Luke Rintod

KOTA KINABALU: Irrespective of what blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) writes and Barisan Nasional leaders reveal, Sabah MP Lajim Ukin is still a good investment for Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Among his constituents and ardent local political observers, the currently much-talked about Beaufort MP may still win big in the coming polls.

They opined that the former federal deputy minister of housing and local government, who jumped from ruling Umno to the opposition side recently, would win in least two parliamentary and three state assembly seats.

Musa remains our leader, says Umno man

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Umno has brushed off claims of a shake-up in the party and that its strongman Musa Aman could well be on the way out ahead of the crucial general election.

Senior Sabah Umno leader, Masidi Manjun, quickly dismissed the news report in FMT as mere rumour, claiming even Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was impressed by Musa’s performance, both as Umno head and chief minister.

‘Defection decision won’t help Sabah’

Political maverick Jeffrey Kitingan is disappointed
in Lajim Ukin and Wilfred Bumburing's decision to
align themselves with Pakatan Rakyat.

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah opposition leader Jeffrey Kitingan has likened Lajim Ukin and Wilfred Bumburing’s decision to align themselves with PKR instead of state-based parties to that of “subconsciously perpetuating a subservient political mentality” in Sabah.

“I would have preferred them to be with me in State Reform Party (STAR) as it is better for us Sabahan leaders to be in our own strength to correct the situation we are in,” he said here.

Bumburing and Lajim had on July 29 officially aligned themselves with Pakatan Rakyat, especially with PKR, in a move many see as a selfish effort to prolong their respective stay in politics.

Both leaders were openly known to be on Barisan Nasional’s drop-list as candidates in the impending general election. Lajim had openly accused Sabah Umno head and Chief Minister Musa Aman of dropping him.

Anwar: Expect more surprises from Sabah

By Luke Rintod of FMT

TUARAN: Former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim today asked Sabahans to save Sabah and Malaysia by voting out the Umno-led Barisan Nasional at the coming general election.

“I know what I’m talking about. I have been a finance minister for eight years and during my tenure it was “pay, pay” unlike under the current one which is just “debt, debt”,” he said alleging the BN has it wrong everywhere in its governance.

Value of Lajim, Bumburing exit debatable

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: As Wilfred Mojilip Bumburing and Lajim Ukin prepare to render their speeches for their respective functions today,  political analysts here have a mix reading of their decision to leave the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition for the opposition.

It is debatable whether their withdrawal is an act of  betrayal of people’s mandate or a vote of no confidence on their former bosses.

For the record, today, July 29, the two Sabah BN parliamentarians are ‘officially’ set to throw their support for Pakatan Rakyat, witnessed by its leader Anwar Ibrahim.

PM, DPM should explain KK hospital delay

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: If there is one building that almost every Sabahan can easily identify with, it is the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in Kota Kinabalu.

The iconic QEH was originally built at the 1.5th mile Penampang Road in 1957 by the British. This was the time when Sabah was still known as British North Borneo. It was then just a cluster of single and double storey blocks.

In 1981, an important addition to QEH, a RM20 million eight-storey block was completed.

‘We are ready for Putrajaya’

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA BELUD: Pakatan Rakyat is ready to take over the federal government from the long-ruling and corrupt-ridden Barisan Nasional. 

Speaking to some 300 locals at a Chinese school hall here last weekend, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang said even BN leaders know it and they are now afraid of losing power.

“BN is now afraid of us, they dare not dissolve Parliament. They are really afraid of Pakatan… they dare not hold simultaneous ceramah [to compete] with us now.

BN will win big in Sabah

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: Despite the political mayhem in Sabah, it is possible that Barisan Nasional (BN) will again win big in the state in the coming general election.

In fact, BN could win all 25 parliamentary seats and all the 60 state assembly seats as well as the sole MP seat in Labuan.

Mind you, in the last general election in 2008, Sabah BN lost only two seats – the Kota Kinabalu parliamentary seat and the state seat in Sri Tanjung .

Both seats went to DAP. This time though, it is possible that DAP will lose both seats to BN.

Political frogs: Jeffrey under attack

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU : State Reform Party (STAR) Sabah chairman Jeffrey Kitingan’s statement that “all Sabah politicians are frogs” in Bingkor last Sunday seems to have poked right into the hornet’s nest.

Politicians across the divide and coffeeshops are abuzz with arguments over who is or is not a “frog” in Sabah.

A barrage of defensive attacks against Kitingan by Sabah Barisan Nasional leaders made the local newspapers today, with vehement denials that Chief Minister Musa Aman and his deputy Joseph Pairin Kitingan ever were “frogs”, a term often used to demean politicians who ‘hopped’ from party to party.

‘We are all frogs, even Musa and Pairin’

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KENINGAU: Maverick politician Jeffrey Kitingan, often accused of being a political frog, launched a stinging attack on Sabah politicians for lacking integrity and being unable to fight for the state.

He rebuked those who claim he was a “political frog” for jumping from party to party, saying unlike him, all local leaders had switched allegiances and had forsaken their political principles.

Now the Sabah chairman of the State Reform Party (STAR), he said there were no Sabah politicians who could claim they were not “frogs” as it was well known that they had switched allegiances a number of times to gain or remain in power.

Upko leader threatens ‘unsupportive’ villagers

By Luke Rintod of FMT

RANAU: A Sabah Barisan Nasional party has come under fire for blatantly linking government aid to political support in the remote interior of Sabah.

This time the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko), of which Federal Minister Bernard Dompok  is president, has been roundly criticised for attempting to browbeat village folks into supporting the party and the BN or risk losing government assistance.

Upko’s state assemblyman for Paginatan, Dr Ewon Ebin, allegedly threatened villagers in remote Kg Wakaku that he would not be able to help them if they continued to support the opposition.

Foreign traders in Sabah flouting law

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: The Consumer Affairs and Protection Association of Sabah (CAPS) wants the Sabah state government to explain how a burgeoning number of newly-arrived Pakistanis have been allowed to literally set up shop around the state.

CAPS’ deputy treasurer, Donny Yapp, said it was now quite easy to find Pakistani shopkeepers all around the city and its immediate outskirts.

He said CAPS had since last year been receiving reports and complaints both from consumers and local retailers that more and more foreigners, especially Pakistanis, had been given a free-hand to run groceries in many places that local retailers would normally have problem setting up business.

Clean water, dirty loan

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KENINGAU: Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s sudden announcement of a RM235 million loan from the federal government to Sabah to upgrade water supply for Keningau alone has caught many here by surprise.

Most people here were sceptical of Najib’s announcement during his trip here last weekend.

One economist from Kuala Pemyu, Dr James Alin, questioned the motive behind the abrupt decision to grant Sabah a loan and not a federal grant, as was the normal procedure.