The People's Parliament
In his ‘The silence is deafening’ post, RPK lamented at the silence of the parties who should be in the know on the issue of whether the peace agreement brokered in December last year to resolve the Sabah PKR leadership crisis included an agreement to not take any action against those party members involved in the move to register Parti Cinta Sabah.
“One person who should be saying something but appears to be maintaining an elegant silence is the PKR vice-president, Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan. Or should I instead say that the silence from Jeffrey is deafening?”, Pete complained.
Pete ended his posting by asking the all-important question.
Who is lying?
I caught up with Jeffrey, who is in Kota Kinabalu, by phone earlier this morning to ask if he would end this elegant silence.
He said he would.
HI : When the peace deal was brokered last December to resolve the Sabah PKR leadership crisis, was the matter of the involvement of PKR members in the application to register Parti Cinta Sabah also dealt with?
JK : Yes, when it was decided to reconcile, it was also decided that no action would be taken against those who took part in setting up the new party. In return, Thamrin’s appointment would be accepted whilst there was also agreement on the appointment of some others, like the secretary and ketua penerangan, but even this was not implemented.
HI : More specific to the issue of ‘no action to be taken’, was this assurance expressly raised and agreed to during the peace talks and if agreed to, by who from PKR headquarters?
JK : It was agreed to by the Ketua Umum PKR.
HI : This assurance was given to you?
JK : It was conveyed to me by Ketua Umum through a third party.
HI : Is there anything in writing that evidences this assurance from Ketua Umum?
JK : Yes, the assurance was conveyed verbally as well as in writing.
HI : It is now being suggested that when the peace deal was brokered and concluded, the party leaders at HQ were not aware that an application to register a new party had already been lodged with the ROS and that they were under the impression that such a party was merely being contemplated. Would you care to respond to this?
JK : This is not true.
HI : Why do you think we are now seeing this about turn?
JK : I have no idea, although it does look like it might have to do with the party elections. Somebody complained and now it looks like we are going backward.
HI : I had asked in my blog whether this was to neutralise your support in PKR Sabah and whether this was in furtherance of a Muslim agenda that some have said Dato Seri Anwar is pushing. Would you care to comment on this?
JK : No comment
HI : The party will decide this coming Sunday whether to adopt and give effect to the recommendation to suspend the 12. Where do you go from there if they do adopt the recommendation to suspend?
JK : Well, I will cross that bridge if and when we get there. Right now, what I would like to suggest to the leadership is to withdraw the decision and to resume party activities. After all, a decision had been made 9 or 10 months ago that we make a peace plan and we reconcile.
HI : Are you therefore urging the party leadership to look at the bigger picture and push forward with the peace plan?
JK : Yes. To me, whatever they are doing now is already irrelevant because a decision had been made to reconcile and make a peace plan and we have moved along that line for about a year already. Are we now going backward and say throw the peace plan away? Where is the direction? The party has earlier made a decision and they should stick to that decision.
HI : Would you say that this latest development puts PKR Sabah in a very precarious position?
JK : Indeed, it does.
HI : Is there anything else you would like to clarify on this matter?
JK : I would like to say that these 12 have been very honest. They told the truth. They abandoned their plan about a new party after we made a peace plan and we reconciled and then how can this now be done to them?At the time of submission of nomination papers? This will disqualify these people. This is not fair. We are fighting for justice and democracy. This will in effect deprive these people the opportunity to exercise their right. It effectively undermines the democratic process in the party.
HI : Thank you.
JK : Thank you
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