The Borneo Alliance to be form

KOTA KINABALU: United Borneo Front (UBF) will strive to unite all political parties in Sabah, to form an alliance dubbed The Borneo Alliance, to push for the common agenda of obtaining full autonomy, said its leader Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan.



At a news conference held after the Inter-Party Dialogue and Leadership Seminar organized by the Borneo Heritage Foundation (BHF) here yesterday he said they would form a Borneo Alliance either through a new political party or an existing one.

He was responding to a call from one of the participants, urging him to immediately form a new political party.

Also present at the occasion were SAPP president Datuk Yong Teck Lee, who was one of the two speakers at the seminar besides Dr Jeffrey, several other SAPP leaders and Christina Liew, the deputy chairperson of Parti Keadialan Rakyat (PKR) Sabah.

Asked whether his recent statement that he was not going back to PKR was final, Dr Jeffrey reiterated that what really mattered to him now was to strive to unite all political parties in the state.

He added that this was crucial in view of the fact that like what his comrade, Yong had pointed out during his talk earlier, that after the results of the last general election, the situation had changed where the federal government now needed the support of Sabah and Sarawak.

“For me, political leaders in the state, regardless of their parties must unite, let bygone be bygone,” he said, adding that this was also the rationale behind the organizing of the seminar.

Dr Jeffrey who is also the chairman of BHF further noted that UBF and SAPP have agreed to achieve their common goals and objectives through the Borneo Agenda which would be expanded to include SAPP’s 8-points Agenda.

Meanwhile, during the ‘Q & A’ session earlier, Christina said: “Let’s unite for our common destiny. There should be no more fighting among the opposition. It has to be a one-on-one fight against the Barisan Nasional in the coming general election.”

The one-day seminar was attended by some 120 invited participants and was moderated by former Commissioner of Malaysia Human Rights Commission (Suhakam), Tan Sri Simon Sipaun.

Two papers were presented in the seminar, one by Dr Jeffrey entitled “Moving Forward with UBF”, and the other one entitled “Special Rights, Autonomy and Equal Partnership” by Yong.

Source : New Sabah Times