Kota Kinabalu: Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (KDM) president Peter Anthony says he will leave it to the rakyat to judge his conviction by the sessions court in Kuala Lumpur on a charge of falsifying documents.
The former Sabah infrastructure development minister returned here and said the decision had not weakened his resolve to continue fighting for Sabahans through the newly-formed KDM.
“Let the people judge for themselves what happened. Is this a case of robbery, is it a case of theft, or is it a case of bribery?
“Did this case result in the government losing money or did Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) lose even one sen? No,” he told supporters at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport shortly after his arrival.
Peter said he left it to Gabungan Rakyat Sabah’s (GRS) leadership to decide on KDM’s application to join the coalition.
He said KDM currently had no plans to join any other political alliance and said the party still supports the current state government.
“We have been invited to GRS’ launch ceremony. It is up to them to accept us or not.
“What is important now is that we support the chief minister and the current state government.”
Peter was sentenced to three years in prison and fined RM50,000 after he was found guilty of forging a letter from the office of the UMS deputy vice-chancellor for a system maintenance contract work.
Judge Azura Alwi also ordered Peter to serve a 15-month prison sentence if he failed to pay the fine.
She ordered Peter to pay the RM50,000 fine before allowing a stay of execution of the jail sentence pending an appeal.
Peter, who is the Melalap assemblyman, also maintained that his position as the people’s representative will not be affected by the conviction.
“As long as I still have two more opportunities to appeal my case, and so long as I am the KDM president, I’m still a legitimately elected representative.
“This (conviction) will not silence me nor will it stop me from meeting my supporters, the people of Sabah.
“There is nothing to fear. We will continue to fight to strengthen Sabah’s position,” he said.
