No show by Kitingan at meeting

2009/10/30

By Jaswinder Kaur

KOTA KINABALU: Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan and Christina Liew, who resigned from senior posts in Parti Keadilan Rakyat on Wednesday, did not turn up for the first meeting chaired yesterday by the party's newly-appointed Sabah chief, Ahmad Thamrin Jaini.

Thamrin told a press conference that 17 division heads or their representatives who attended the meeting confirmed their support, and that the absence of the remaining eight did not mean they were not with him.

Kitingan, who resigned as vice-president, remains Keningau division head and Liew, who gave up her post as supreme council member, is Kota Kinabalu division chief.

Liew, who sent her division's committee member, Asmari Sikin, to the meeting, later said in a text message that Thamrin did not have the support of the majority.

"It is a mere manipulation of numbers... We don't want to bother to debate with this kind of claim.

"Black is black and white is white. I don't want to engage myself with half-baked truths. That is not my style," she said.

Sabah PKR head Ahmad Thamrin Jaini says he intends to get in touch with Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan

Earlier, Asmari caused a stir midway through the press conference when he said he was instructed by Liew to go for the meeting but that she had slapped a gag order on him.

Asmari spoke up when a reporter wanted to know if there was a representative from Kota Kinabalu and whether the division supported the new leadership, as claimed by Thamrin.

Kitingan, meanwhile, said he did not go for the meeting as he was on leave, and confirmed Thamrin's statement that the former vice-president had sent him an SMS to apologise for being unable to attend.

Kitingan also declined to comment if the Keningau division was not going to support the new state chief, although he had earlier made it clear he was unhappy with the party's decision to pick Thamrin.

"I wish Thamrin well. This is what I will tell him if I meet him," Kitingan said.

Thamrin who was asked if he had been in touch with Kitingan said he had not but intended to.

"I will try to meet everyone for the good of the party, and to strengthen it.

"We also discussed the move made by the two (Kitingan and Liew) to resign (from top posts), and we respect their decision.

"We are disappointed that they had decided to leave, but we have to move forward."

Thamrin said the state PKR felt disappointed as Sabah only had one representative left at federal level in the form of Ansari Abdullah, who is a supreme council member.

He dispelled reports that former state chief Azmin Ali had been undemocratic in resolving the issue of who should be the next person to head PKR in Sabah.

"Azmin had put it to the floor... he wanted names but his proposal was turned down by some leaders who said it would force them to vote if there were a few names.

"At the meeting chaired by Azmin, we decided that the mandate to choose the new state chief should go to the party president.

"Everyone had said they would support whoever was chosen to replace Azmin," he said.