SABAH Umno will be closed down, said Sabah STAR chairman Jeffrey Kitingan, explaining his support for Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman in his quest to form the state government.

Kitingan quoted Musa as saying that all Umno assemblymen and branch members would move to a new entity.

“The concept has been agreed upon, the process will be followed up on, and I’m certain the people will be very happy that there will be no more Umno in Sabah,” said Jeffrey, adding that Sabah had to move with the times and abolish the things “people see as irrelevant”.

Malaysia Decides is trying to get Umno officials in the state to comment on Kitingan’s claim.

Kitingan’s party won the Bingkor and Tambunan state seats.

STAR’S decision to throw in its lot with Barisan Nasional, however, gave the latter the simple majority it needed to form the Sabah government last night, after Parti Warisan Sabah and BN reached a deadlock in the 14th general election, with a tie of 29 state seats each.

Kitingan rebuffed accusations that he had betrayed the people by supporting BN.

“No, no. I am not a traitor. They have not understood what I am doing yet. I have not explained it to them,” he said.

“I’m using this opportunity to restructure our political approach, so that we will no longer be controlled by peninsular Malaysia,” he said today.

The decision by Kitingan to join Musa Aman triggered a protest in Kota Kinabalu last night.

Kitingan said he had not swayed from his goal to make sure Umno ceased to exist in Sabah.

Under the proposed plan, Kitingan said the state government would comprise only Sabah political parties.

“We will not do this in haste, and we will start by forming some basic ideas first and refining them later on to form a whole new party.

“This has been agreed to be done as soon as possible. So this party will be the ruling party in the state cabinet,” he said.

Jeffrey said he was also doing Sabahans a favour as a member of Parliament now that he was an opposition MP in the Dewan Rakyat.

“As promised by the Pakatan Harapan manifesto to return our state rights, I will be there to make sure they will keep their promise to the state if they form the new federal government,” he said. – May 11, 2018.