NANAM: The State Reform Party (STAR) has lashed out at Sabah Umno for attempting to divert attention away from the self-inflicted security problem that has occurred in the state during its watch.

STAR Sabah deputy chairman Daniel John Jambun said the attempt by Sabah Umno leaders to focus on opposition leader Tian Chua of PKR and his comments about the on-going security crisis in the state was absurd and an attempt to defect criticism.

He said that the call to ban Tian Chua from ever entering Sabah rather than imposing one on Umno leaders particularly former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, on whom the blame for the crisis can be placed, was the hight of hypocrisy.

“Mahathir and Umno leaders were in cahoots on “Projek IC” … to give out Malaysian documents to illegal immigrants in Sabah. They are the ones who should be barred,” Jambun said.
A series of police reports have made against Tian Chua for his earlier statement that the Lahad Datu incident was all of Umno’s doing.

Jambun said the hue and cry by Umno supporters lodging police reports and calling for Tian Chua to be barred from entering Sabah is a concerted effort by the ruling party to divert attention from allegations that a whole Umno branch in Lahad Datu had been compromised by the crisis.
Allegations have been made that several of those involved in the Kg Tanduo takeover by a band of Filipino mercenaries allied to the self-proclaimed Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Karim III are Umno members.

The brutal slaughter of eight Malaysian policemen by the mercenaries has left Umno leaders wringing their hands in distress.

Jambun, STAR chairman Jeffrey Kitingan’s outspoken deputy said, Umno leaders were squirming following the raid by the armed Filipino group especially after Chief Minister Musa Aman had time and again over the years assured that the east coast of the state is secure.

“Tian Chua’s unfavourable comment against Umno on the Sulu gunmen in Sabah would of course infuriate some Umno members, but look at the real issue at hand and who contributed to the whole problems linked to these illegal immigrants,” said Jambun in a statement here.
He said it was former premier Mahathir and his fellow Umno leaders, including current premier Najib Tun Razak, who put in place a scheme to grants Malaysian citizenship to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from the Philippines.

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has officially excluded Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) from seat negotiations on Sabah’s opposition front, PKR’s Azmin Al

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has officially excluded Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) from seat negotiations on Sabah’s opposition front, PKR’s Azmin Ali has confirmed, insisting the party’s demands are too unreasonable to accommodate.
The PKR deputy president told The Malaysian Insider that on the state-level, PR and its new Sabah allies — Angkatan Perubahan Sabah (APS) and Pertubuhan Pakatan Perubahan Sabah (PPPS) — have nearly agreed on a seat-sharing formula.
“There are just a few more overlapping seats. But we are now asking the PR presidential council to guide us in determining which seats should be contested by which party,” Azmin (picture) said when contacted here, adding that the matter was raised at Wednesday’s political bureau meeting.
But the Gombak MP, who has been leading seat talks with APS and PPPS, would not reveal PR’s seat-sharing formula with the two Sabah-based movements for strategic reasons.
APS is led by Tuaran MP Datuk Seri Wilfred Mojilip Bumburing, formerly the deputy president of Barisan Nasional’s (BN) United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (UPKO), while PPPS is led by Beaufort MP and former Umno supreme council member Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin.
“But SAPP is completely out of the list, out of our formula. I am not blaming them for anything, simply that their demands are unreasonable,” Azmin confirmed.
SAPP, a nearly two-decade-old party led by former Sabah chief minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee, had earlier agreed to collaborate with PR in Election 2013 to topple BN from its east Malaysian fortress, but has been insisting that local parties must contest the lion’s share of the 60 seats in the state’s legislative assembly.
Yong said the peninsula-based PR can contest the majority of Sabah’s 25 federal seats to help its bid for Putrajaya but maintained that administrative power over the state must stay in the hands of parties with roots in Sabah.
He said that this would be in keeping with the state’s right to autonomy as enshrined in the 1963 Malaysia Agreement.
But Azmin told The Malaysian Insider that Yong’s demand for 40 or even half the state’s 60 seats was unreasonable.
He pointed out that when SAPP contested under BN in Election 2008, the party had only won two seats in Parliament and two in the state legislature. SAPP officially withdrew from BN in September 2008 and became an independent party.
“But they want 40 seats now? Then what is left for the rest of the opposition parties in Pakatan, in APS and PPPS?” Azmin said.