Jeffrey’s groundwork gave Pakatan victory
STAR contested 69 seats and won only Bingkor through its leader Jeffrey Kitingan.
Luke Rintod, FMT
Sabah’s maverick politician Jeffrey Kitingan, who captured the imagination of young KDM professionals across Sabah with the historic truths about the 20 points and Malaysia Agreement, and stoked their desire for change, is a sad and “baffled” man today.
His two-year long charismatic work on the ground while empowering minds about the Borneo Agenda, delivered seats to Pakatan Rakyat’s PKR and DAP instead of his own political brand – State Reform Party (STAR).
The Pakatan pact won 11 seats. STAR won one. Sabah has 60 state constituencies. The Pakatan pact also won three parlaimentary seats – Kota Kinabalu, Penampang and Sandakan.
Confident STAR contested in 70 seats across the state. But only Jeffrey managed to wrest his Bingkor seat. Everyone else lost badly with many only registering votes in the hundreds and losing their deposits.
In a text message to FMT, a shocked Jeffrey said: “I was surprised at the overall results of STAR candidates…I am still baffled.
“My reading is that it has been put into the voters’ mind that only BN and PR (Pakatan) can make the difference.
“Most didn’t understand the strategic importance of Sabah and Sarawak as the third force.”
He also blamed BN money and the uneven political playing field for STAR’s candidates.
“Of course the lack of financial resources, the uneven playing field, cheating and “pengundi luar” (outside voters) continue to be BN’s forte,” he said.
Jeffrey himself won the Bingkor state seat with a majority of 456 in a four-cornered fight.
He chalked up 5,350 votes, beating Kennedy John Angian of BN who garnered 4,894 votes. Ahmad Shah Tambakau of PKR got 2,368 votes while the sole independent candidate Ricky Sedomon only managed to get 111 votes and lost his deposit.
The 64-year-old however again failed to unseat his elder brother Joseph Pairin in an interesting three-cornered fight for the Keningau parliamentary seat.
On his Bingkor victory, Jeffrey said: “As for Bingkor, they gave me their votes because I have always been there for them.
“They understand and support my “perjuangan” as being important to Sabah and I had a committed and effective election machinery”.
