The latest, Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (Star), dismissed the former premier’s offer as playing politics.
Star president Jeffrey Kitingan, who was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) during Mahathir’s administration, said he appreciated Mahathir’s guts and turnaround on Sabah’s rights and the Malaysia Agreement but did not believe his sincerity.
“There is nothing sincere or truthful in it because I know what he wants — our resources and our residual powers. Nobody is going to sincerely help Sabah and Sabahans except ourselves,” he said to FMT.
Jeffrey was commenting on a statement by PBS acting president Maximus Ongkili who, on Sunday, said Mahathir suppressed any attempt to fight for Sabah’s rights, and arrested Sabah’s nationalists including Maximus under the ISA.
Maximus, whose uncle Joseph Pairin Kitingan is a deputy chief minister in the state BN government, said Mahathir was not worth listening to because he did not deliver the goods when he had the chance.
Another opposition party, Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah on Oct 2 gave a cautious welcome to Mahathir’s promise to review the Malaysia Agreement if the PH coalition came to power.
However, the party’s president Lajim Ukin, who was an Umno supreme council member between 2000 and 2003, said the former Umno president did not care much about Sabah and Sarawak.
Nevertheless, Lajim said, his party as well as the Sabah people would welcome Mahathir if indeed he had realised his mistakes and truly wished to make amends.
Even Parti Warisan Sabah, led by former Umno vice-president Shafie Apdal who was accused of being a proxy of Mahathir in Sabah, was keeping its distance from the PH chairman, at least in public.
Warisan secretary-general, Loretto Sipin Padua Jr, said recently that none of the party’s office bearers was associated with Mahathir, whom he described as a 92-year-old ordinary citizen.
Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president Yong Teck Lee, meanwhile, commented that Mahathir appeared to have forgotten that he was not exactly a popular figure in the state.
Jeffrey, who was detained under the ISA between 1991 and 1994, said when he was arrested, Mahathir asked him to write a statement on the reasons why Sabahans were unhappy and what they wanted.
He said Mahathir blamed him for inciting Sabahans against the federal government over Sabah’s rights.
“I wrote the first one as requested. In the report, I wrote about our rights and how the government can address them. It was sent to him but Mahathir was unhappy about my report.
“He asked for another report which I duly complied. The essence was the same. It was rejected again and I was asked to do a third report.
“I came up with the third report and it was accepted and I was released conditionally in January 1994 but placed under residential confinement in Negeri Sembilan until March that year.
“That means even during that time, Mahathir already knew our aspirations through my reports, yet he never cared until now because he realised the sentiments and whatever I said were true,” he said.
Jeffrey chided some Sabah politicians who said they were prepared to work with the “devil” to get into power by calling it a “necessary evil”.
He warned those who entertained the idea that it was short-sighted.
“Malayan leaders, if they were sincere, should treat Sabah and Sarawak leaders as their partners and not as their subordinates.
“For 54 years, the Malayan leaders and the federal government did not respect nor fulfil the rights of the east Malaysian states as enshrined in the Federal Constitution.
“Once the devil takes over, can our local politicians guarantee that they can really fight the new devil?” he asked.
Rather than colluding with the new devil, he called upon Sabahans as well as Sarawakians to chart their own future by rejecting national-based parties in favour of local-based parties in the coming election.