Jeffrey, Yong fail to settle seats issue

Both disagreed with each other's presumed strength in
many Kadazandusun areas, where both want to break into.

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah-based opposition party leaders Yong Teck Lee and Jeffrey Kitingan were in discussions last night in a last- ditch effort to stitch together a pact to give Sabah voters a clear choice between a local opposition front and a peninsula-based one.

But the two pivotal figures in Sabah’s opposition power play, however, again failed to reconcile their overlapping claims for Sabah parliamentary and state seats.

According to sources, the secrecy surrounding the meeting caused some delay in the arrival of representatives – from both parties – at the rendezvous point in the city.

Is Taib-Jeffrey alliance in the making?

Will wily old Taib Mahmud, who has kept Sarawak
out of Umno’s greedy clutches all these decades,
outmanoeuvre Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak?

By Joseph Tawie and Pushparani Thilaganathan

KUALA LUMPUR: Speculations of covert conversations between “cornered” Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and Sabah State Reform Party (STAR) chief Jeffrey Kitingan gained ground in Kuching following Jeffrey’s call to Sarawakians to “support local parties”.

During a recent visit, Jeffrey advised Sarawakians not to support peninsula-based Pakatan Rakyat but instead to give their backing to local parties.

The call, while confusing to some, has lent credence to rumours that Taib was keen on Jeffrey’s Borneo Agenda and had met with him to discuss an “alliance”.

Opposition leaders ‘not from heaven’

By Luke Rintod and Pushparani Thilaganathan of FMT

A widespread whisper campaign may end Umno's reign in
Sabah, given the RCI revelations and Prime Minister
Najib Tun Razak's desperate need for his own
loyalists in the next GE.

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Umno is bracing itself for back-to-back visits next week by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin.

Najib, who is to pay a two-day visit to Sabah on Feb 13-14, is expected to meet local Umno warlords and Barisan Nasional coalition partners in the state.

Though the visit has not been officially announced, sources said the prime minister is expected to call a BN meeting to formally notify the Sabah BN partners of the list of candidates for the on-coming 13th general election as well as the distribution of both state and parliamentary seats.

The prime minister’s visit comes after he reportedly met, last month, with Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud who handed him his list of those who will be contesting the impending election under the BN ticket.

Shahrizat blows it for Umno in S’wak?

By Joseph Tawie of FMT

Umno Wanita chief Sharizat Abdul Jalil's arrogance and
ignorance has made her a laughing stock in Sarawak.

KUCHING: If Umno Wanita chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil had been observant, she would have noticed the incredulous looks on the faces of the crowd when she recently warned Sarawakians to be “wary” of peninsula-based opposition leaders who stoke racial and religious issues.

Here was former Women, Family and Community Development Minister, who seemed oblivious to the fact that it was her bosses in Umno who had fine-tuned the art of stoking and perpetuating racial and religious disharmony in their bid to stay in power.

“If you talk about propagating racial politics and religious issues, Umno is the worst.

Sarawak snubs hero’s last wishes

Joseph Tawie, FMT

KUCHING: The state government’s refusal and dismissal of an Iban hero’s last wish to be buried at the Heroes Grave in Jalan Budaya here has angered his family, fellow police officers and the Dayak community in the state.

Retired Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Wilfred Gomez Malong, 63, died of colon cancer on Saturday and the family was forced to bury him at Kampung Entingan Cemetery after their bid to honour his last wishes was rejected by the state government without a reason.

Gomez, who was awarded the Panglima Gagah Berani (PGB) medal at a young age of 24, was buried this morning with full police honours.