
Those who have closely monitored the local Sabahan political arena recently through the internet (the mainstream media seems strangely quiet) would have noticed that a major opposition party in Sabah here is having some ‘internal squabbles’. That party is none other than Keadilan, the party with the largest share of parliament seat among the opposition parties in Malaysia and is eying to win more seats in the future elections, especially in Sabah and Sarawak where a bulk is currently with the BN. In order to do so, a local political stalwart by the name of Geoffrey Gapari Kitingan, or better known as Jeffrey Kitingan, has been recruited to help win the support of the public towards Keadilan.

Jeffrey Kitingan is not a man without controversies – he is one of those politicians who locals would call “katak” for hopping parties* so frequently that people are getting tired of him. He started off from Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) before moving on to Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS), then Parti Angkatan Keadilan Rakyat (AKAR Bersatu), then back into PBS again, and then to United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (UPKO). He was left party-less after that. In 2003, he applied to join the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) but his application was rejected. He then, under the invitation of Anwar Ibrahim, joined Keadilan, was appointed Vice-President, and ran for the Keningau Parliament seat and the Bingkor state seat in the 2008 General Elections. He lost both narrowly.
As recent as a few days ago, Jeffrey announced that he had resigned as Vice-President of Keadilan. This is apparently due to the dissatisfaction that he hasn’t been appointed as Sabah Keadilan chief after Azmin Ali has been booted out from the post. Instead, Ahmad Thamrin Jaini, a muslim leader from the east coast of Sabah, was appointed to the post. It is interesting to note that this Thamrin fella contested against Musa Aman, the current Chief Minister of Sabah in the Sungai Sibuga seat in the last election. Who gets to sit at the state chief post may get to become CM if Keadilan wins the most seat in the next election, and that’s why the seat is pretty hot and many are fighting over it.
Actually, I have noticed the whole squabble as early as 9th of October when I have first heard that Azmin is probably going to be booted out as state chief after several division were dissatisfied with his performance. Then, I heard that the decision to replace Azmin as head of the state became apparent on the 14th of October when I read this article from Haris Ibrahim. Then there’s the memorandum signed by 18 divisions, Zaid’s mission to check on the state (and allergly getting sabotaged by Azmin), Anwar allergly saying “No way in hell will I have Jeffrey as chief“, and finally, Jeffrey’s resignation as Vice-president. Then again, we were shocked by another bombshell, this time dropped by none other than Christina Liew – she resigned as a member of the Central Committee of Keadilan!
![]()
I don’t care about Jeffrey Kitingan’s departure as he is a known “katak”, he may quit his post for all he wants, but now when even Christina, one of the early founders of Keadilan Sabah, is not keeping quiet and has quit her national position, this shows that the level of dissatisfaction among local Keadilan leaders towards the central leadership is at a worrying level. However in my opinion she shouldn’t have quit. Unlike Jeffrey Kitingan who was appointed, she was voted in as CC by the central delegates and therefore by quitting, she has, how should I put it… betrayed those who had placed their trust in her within the party! I know she may have lost her deputy state chief post to Kong Hong Ming (another “katak”), but that’s just a small matter… those who humiliated her mother should be ashamed of themselves! There’s nothing to be ashamed of for fighting for the people! I am sure that if Keadilan were to become state government, Christina would definitely be appointed a member of the state cabinet, and probably a Deputy Chief Minister?
What I am glad is, for now, both Jeffrey and Christina are still in PKR. If they were to leave then I don’t know what I’ll think of them – kataks?
I don’t really fancy party hopping. In spite of that, party hoping is made possible, and the only thing that is viable, after the Constitution of Malaysia has been edited to disallow an assemblyperson or member of parliament from re-election within five years if they were to resign. That’s is a farcical rule, I say. It may now work for the BN, but one day it’ll go against them.