“Are you still in or out?” STAR asked SAPP

According to Joe Fernandez, Free Malaysia Today, The young Turks, a powerful lobby group within the State Reform Party (STAR), won the day when party chief Jeffrey Kitingan finally announced in Kota Kinabalu yesterday that he may go for all 60 state and 26 parliamentary seats in Sabah including Labuan at the forthcoming 13th general election.

The writer said, the young Turks have long been pushing for the party to go for broke on the grounds that the people must be given a democratic choice.

They are against “any form of pre-polls seat-sharing to circumvent the people’s will”, he said.

If the young Turks have now gained the upper hand in the party, the credit must largely go to SAPP which broke ranks in the UBA and unilaterally forged a seat-sharing pact over the weekend with Pakatan Rakyat, the Peninsular Malaysia-based national opposition alliance.

Anwar, adding insult to injury, let it be known in the media before he left town recently, that he’s open to offering some of Pakatan’s seats to an opposition party in Sabah.

It’s not known how the seats in Sabah will be shared between SAPP and Pakatan.

The only information available is what Sabah PKR chief, Thamrin Haji Jaini, has been reportedly whispering about in town, which is that SAPP will keep its present two parliamentary seats in Tawau and Sepanggar and field candidates in 35 of the 60 state seats. The rest will go to Pakatan.

Hence, Anwar sees no need for Jeffrey or his STAR in the political equation in Sabah.

The young Turks prevailed upon Jeffrey over the weekend to give SAPP a good piece of the party’s mind for literally stabbing STAR in the back. 

Jeffrey agreed that they could draft a letter to SAPP which would be signed by a deputy chairman, Daniel John Jambun, a noted hawk in the party.

The STAR letter would asks SAPP for its “official position” on the sharing of seats with STAR and “if really necessary, with any other parties”.

In addition, STAR wants “an assurance” from SAPP of its continued membership in the UBA.

“Are you still in or out?” it asked SAPP

The answer seems to be obvious but STAR, for reasons best known to it, insists on flogging a dead horse.

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