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Why Jeffrey Kitingan is rejected as an UMNO member

UMNO DECIDED NOT TO ADMIT DATO' Jeffrey Kitingan as a member (The Star, 06 June, p4). The deputy president, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, would not say why. Or as he put it so expressively, "No need to explain lah!" The decision was made in Kuala Lumpur, and it stunned Dr Jeffrey in Kota Kinabalu. He said he would comment on it when he has the official letter from UMNO headquarters. "I can't say anything until I get the letter. I have not heard anything," he said. And promised to hold a press conference after he consulted his people, the stock answer of a politician caught with his pants down. He and his men had no doubt he would be an UMNO member. But even UMNO in Sabah accept the rejection cold cause some local political difficulty. The Sabah UMNO information chief, Dato' Rahim Ismail, said Dr Jeffrey must respect the UMNO decision and "is free to chose his next political direction."

He was rejected for what would not have admitted many of UMNO's members in Sabah: that he changed so many parties in the past, and what guarantee is there he would not from UMNO? Some in Sabah UMNO felt his joining UMNO was to complement his brother, Dato' Joseph Pairin Kitingan's Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), which has rejoined the National Front (BN) in the state. They were frightened of the prospect of the two brothers creating problems for UMNO in the state, after the next state assembly elections. In one sense, UMNO is right: he was viewed with suspicion in every party he was involved in: PBS, Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS), Party Akar, Party UPKO, back to PBS. It is possible I may have missed a party or two. But in each he was viewed with suspicion and egged on his way to the next.

Now Party Pasok Momogun, in the Opposition, has invited him to join it. The less-than-organised Opposition parties think it is a brilliant idea. As elections approach, more parties jump into the BN bandwagon, leaving it in the lurch. The PBS was once with it, but is in the BN. Dato' Joseph has shrewdly calculated that when it is the turn of the non-Muslim bumiputra to hold the office of chief minister, he would be well-placed to fill that role. On the other hand, should UMNO insist that the rotation would be from only amongst its members, Dr Jeffrey, if in UMNO, could well be that figure. Blood after all is thicker than water.

What does this tell you of Sabah politics? That it has only one constant rule: loyalty is to the highest bidder. It was a policy the BN, in its nearly 40 years in power, established with a vengeance. The master of that was the late Tun Datu Mustapha bin Datu Harun, who ruled the state with an iron hand, throwing money and Islam at the people with equal abandon, establishing the cardinal principle that no politician is worth his salt if he is not buyable. Millions of ringgit are offered, and accepted, for changing loyalties and political parties.

That has prevailed since, and every political change in Sabah has millions, often tens of, ringgit attached to it. When the then deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, moved into Sabah - against the UMNO president, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed's wishes - and made it an UMNO stronghold, that did not come cheap. It is no wonder that no chief minister in living memory has taken office without a hundred millionn ringgit or so in his bank balance, all acquired through the onerous and hard work of serving the people. The present chief minister, Dato' Musa Aman, is said to be worth RM300 million. A former chief minister is worth a RM100 million less. If you get five former chief ministers together, it is safe to assume their combined wealth exceeds RM1 billion. It would be that in West Malaysia when two or three BN mentris besar meet.

So, why was Dr Jeffrey rejected as an UMNO member? It has nothing to do with his party-hopping, but more with the uncertainties about the next Prime Minister. Dato' Seri Abdullah would succeed Dr Mahathir in October. But he can expect to be challenged for the UMNO presidency next year. There are two serious challengers in the wings. Both these men rush to establish links with Sabah UMNO. But he who would exert the most influence is not even in UMNO: the now jailed Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The men he nurtured remain loyal to him although they now purport higher loyalties. One Sabah insider told me that this group, and many of them sit in the cabinet promising total fealty to the UMNO president. The strongest Sabah UMNO leader does not intend to shift his loyalties from Dr Mahathir to Dato' Seri Abdullah. He controls, I am told, two-thirds of the Sabah constituencies. Pak Lah obviously has calculated that he can be sidelined, and works to contain that trend.

Should Dr Jeffrey be an UMNO member, and he decides he would not support Pak Lah, that would be to Pak Lah's discomfiture. It is his mischief potential more than anything else that his application is rejected. He could well be accepted at a later date. He was prepared once to dance to UMNO's tune to sink PBS under his brother, then joined his brother to sink UMNO. He is too uncontrollable, and too pliable, for anyone to be comfortable with. So what should he do? He should accept the Pasok Momogun invitation, if for no reason that it is in the Opposition and close to the Parti KeADILan Nasional, (KeADILan), headed by Dato' Seri Anwar's wife, Datin Seri Wan Azizah Wan Islam, which could then present a stronger force than the sorry pastiche it is.

Sabah is in ferment. The Muslim and non-Muslim bumiputras are so far apart that decisions in UMNO is arrived at by alignments that change from one day to the next. All this is not reported, but the often contradicatory decisions taken by the same cabinet minister on different occasions indicates it. This is to be expected. The Kadazans are not Muslims; they are more often Catholic or animist. But UMNO insists on turning the state into an Islamic stronghold. It underestimated Tun Mustapha's damage in that direction in the 1970s, which alienated the largely Roman Catholic bumiputras from the Muslim, when it embarked on this Islamic policy. That divide continues.

It is made worse by severe sectarian divisions amongst the Muslims, rarely above the surface, but nevertheless a fact of life. The appointment of an unknown civil servant as the Yang Dipertuan Negara (governor) last December revealed it. The Bajau faction amongst the Muslims are so dominant in numbers in UMNO, but without the consequent power, that its leader, Dato' Salleh Said Keruak, who although in the cabinet, is not one about to jump into any bandwagon at Kuala Lumpur's dictates. Politically, the former Berjaya Party members in UMNO are united against those they regard as the interlopers, and that, by and large, make up their own minds, usually at the last minute. Which is why the state assembly elections, which must be held within nine months cause many a national UMNO leader to get a heart attack.

This would continue so long as Kuala Lumpur finds it convenient to let matters lie. Dr Mahathir, never having controlled Sabah, although UMNO formed the government, could not, or would not, clean up the politics. Pak Lah comes to office weaker. The ghost of Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim blows an ill wind in the state. So it does not surprise that Sabah is the bell-weather state. It has 30 parliamentary and 60 state assembly seats after the next general elections. Kuala Lumpur controls only a faction of that. That officially-written-off political figure, whose last known address is Sungei Buloh Prison, is the beneficiary of that local defiance, and continues to spout, metaphorically for now, brimstone and fire. Kuala Lumpur hopes to wean that support with lots of money. So huge sums of money is spent, loyalties are bought with abandon, but when the crunch comes, almost all that funds is wasted. In other words, UMNO in Sabah is in power in name as it always was. Admitting Dr Jeffrey could have tipped that balance against it. So he stays out.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my