Jeffrey says party-hopping is a small thing compared to the issues

Star Sabah Chairman Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders are making lots of noise about a "small thing like party-hopping" while keeping silent on major issues raised by the party.

"The fact is, the real issues in Sabah is not about frogging but about other very serious matters which had brought socio-economic disasters to Sabah," he said, adding that BN leaders don't want to talk about this because they know they can't defend themselves.

He said this in a statement Thursday in response to the chorus of attacks made by BN leaders against him for saying BN leaders "are frogs too."

He said Star has been saying that the Sabah BN has been failing to protect Sabah's special rights and being stooges of Umno and KL leaders, and that this failure turned Sabah which is resource-rich into the poorest in Malaysia.

"By being proxies and stooges of KL, these leaders have directly or indirectly supported the transfer of our political franchise which we gained at the time of independence," he said.

"The franchise has now been given to illegal immigrants by way of, among others, the infamous Project IC, and other underhanded dubious methods at the great expense of Sabahans' future," he said.

"What are all these big fat frogs doing about it after sitting in government for so long?" he demanded.

"They claim to have working relations with KL and yet they can't solve a single important problem for Sabah. All we hear is the stories of handouts but the root socio-economic diseases are still there.

You can't solve economic problems by being a Santa Claus."

He asked why the Sabah BN doesn't use its good office and power of the government of the day to solve the problems of poverty, the persistent land and NCR problems, renegotiate the oil royalty to obtain more revenue for the State, re-instate rights loss from the 20 Points.

"Also, why not create downstream industries to produce value-added products? We are instead still exporting logs while our sawmills are closing down due to lack of logs to process. We are sending our gas to Bintulu and locating industries outside Sabah such as the petrochemical plants to be built in Johore."

He pointed out that even with the oil palm industry the State is incurring lost economic opportunities due to lack of downstream industries.

"It is as if the government is carrying out a policy of perpetuating poverty so that the people continue to be dependent, subservient and hostage to the government in order for the BN to remain in power," he charged.

"It is a shame that the leaders of the government of the day are becoming fat and embroiled in financial scandals while the people continue to be mired in poverty. As for me I am proud that I continue to be free from the clutches of Umno," he said.

"I will not veer off from my struggle for the people, and will stick to my principles for rights and autonomy of the Borneo states.

I believe that given the chance we will be able to do much better than the current BN government, " he added.

Daily Express Sabah