KENINGAU: Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (StarSabah) Wiramuda Chief Jordan Jude Ellron has criticised the statement by the Sabah UMNO Information Chief Datuk Suhaimi Nasir, who accused the StarSabah President Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Jeffrey Kitingan of being unworthy to speak about loyalty and trust.
He said the accusation was clearly baseless and tried to obscure the real facts from the people’s knowledge.
In defending Jeffrey’s previous statement, Jordan said that the UMNO-BN side should reflect on their own actions before making such accusations.
According to Jordan, Jeffrey only reminded UMNO Barisan National (BN) that during the PRN-16 Sabah, they had agreed to contest 27 seats in the State Assembly (DUN), but in the end, they fielded candidates in 41 DUN seats in Sabah.
“This is an undeniable fact, in addition to a violation of the initial agreement, which reflects an inconsistent attitude and a lack of respect for understanding and cooperation within the Coalition,” he said in a statement here today.
“Unfortunately, the term “friendly contest” is merely used as an excuse to cover up their true actions of being power-hungry and wanting to contest in as many seats as possible,” he added.
Jordan reminded that UMNO-BN never took action against the PBRS candidate in Ranau during the last PRU-15, even though PBRS clearly violated the agreement and was not in line with the coalition’s stance at that time.
“This silence shows BN’s failure to control and uphold their promises in the agreement at that time.
“An important fact to remember is that BN struggled to win the majority of rural seats in the last PRU-15; the only rural seat won by BN was in Pensiangan, and that was with the full support and assistance of the PN-(GRS) machinery.
“Without that cooperation, it’s uncertain whether that seat would have gone to BN,” he said.
Jordan said this shows that the rural community has less trust in BN to represent their struggles.
“On the contrary, they are turning to local parties that better understand the aspirations and interests of the people of Sabah,” he said.
Jordan added that the President of StarSabah has never distorted history.
He was merely stating the truth and voicing the principle that StarSabah will only cooperate with parties that are honest, principled, and truly respect the spirit of political agreements, rather than those who are only loyal in words but act otherwise.
“As the Chief of the StarSabah Wiramuda Exco, I emphasise that today’s youth want mature, transparent politics that uphold integrity.
“The people of Sabah are now wise enough to discern who truly fights for them and who merely rides on the coattails of MA63 in their manifesto.
“UMNO-BN has been in power for more than two decades in Sabah, yet it has never intended to fulfil MA63 for the good and future of Sabah,” he said.
