SAPP, Star and NGO may merge to form a party
Published on: Friday, January 30, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: At least two opposition parties and one organisation – Star Sabah, Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) and Sabah Reform Movement (APS) – are working towards forming an alliance.Star Sabah Chief Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said they have agreed to work together and move towards creating an alliance for a struggle under a common cause, i.e. fighting for Sabah's rights, interests and future.He was commenting on a claim that has been going around that Star, SAPP and APS will form a single political party to face the 14th General Election.
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"At the moment, we are separate because of our different parties. However, we are trying to move working together and who knows what will happen once we sit under one alliance."Anybody can speculate what can happen in the future and of course, everybody wants to talk about unity and what form the unity…and that is the challenge."The idea of forming a single party…actually we have not talked about it yet. But we did talk about working together and forming an alliance on the same cause," he said to reporters after launching the United Borneo Foundation (UBF) Academy at Sabah Golf and Country Club, Thursday.Present were SAPP President Datuk Yong Teck Lee, veteran politician Datuk Mohd Noor Mansor, Progressive Institute Public Policy Analysis (PIPA) Chairman Amde Sidik, organising chairman of the programme Tony Minggir and other officials.
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Dr Jeffrey who is also Borneo Heritage Foundation (BHF) Chairman said they also welcomed other political parties that may be interested to work together for Sabah's sake.On the UBF Academy, he said it is a body that institutionalises the struggles of its political aspect, economic consciousness and educational programme that will enlighten and educate the people in Sabah with the correct history and rights of Sabah as well as Sarawak in the formation of Malaysia.
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The academy would be an independent unit established under the auspices of BHF. "Apart from its on-going programmes to empower the people and instill patriotism and nationalism, the academy will also be conducting leadership training on a modular basis to mould and shape future leaders to enhance leadership skills."It will house a resource centre, library and a strong research function and produce publications. The academy will not do operations, as it will concern itself on training the trainers."The training modules will be carried out by the mentors like us and we are working together with several non-governmental organisations such as BHF, PIPA, APS and Sabah Freedom Movement, among others," he said.Dr Jeffrey said its headquarters will be temporarily at the BHF office near here and the training sessions can be conducted anywhere."The training is open to all Sabahans to take up the courses and we welcome the Barisan Nasional (BN) youth wing to attend and be trained as this is considered apolitical."The first training will start two weeks from now and a minimal fee might be charged," he said. On whether the academy is established with political motives, Dr Jeffrey said people can say what they want but the academy would prove that it is open to everybody to build the consciousness, understanding and building bridges among different political parties for a common cause for Sabah.Meanwhile, Yong said the establishment of the academy will bring together many intellectuals, professionals, academicians, as well as researchers to pool resources, especially in providing inputs for the library and resource center in the academy."I see this as getting together all efforts by patriotic Sabahans to work under the umbrella of the academy.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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