Jeffrey says encouraged by change in Mahathir

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah STAR president Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said he is encouraged by the change he saw in the Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed when he went to see the latter.

He was particularly surprised when Dr Mahathir asked him about the 20 points but stated that he declined since the Prime Minister was addressing the matter.

He was also surprised when Dr Mahathir asked how Sabah could be equated with Perlis, which is a state in the Federation of Malaya.

“I remember 20 years ago, he said different things. (He said) Sabah is the same with Perlis and is just another state,” said Jeffrey.

“That means, after his retirement, he had time to listen and reflect and read and understand. This is a positive development that I see and so, we should encourage it,” he said.

Jeffrey also said that Dr Mahathir had expressed his objective for Malaysia.

“He wants to reshape Malaysia and he wants more democracy in Malaysia. He wants to get rid of money politics. You win not because of money but because people want you. He wants the rule of law. I thought that was important,” he said.

Jeffrey added that his meeting with Dr Mahathir lasted some two hours and that some of the issues raised included Sabah’s security concerns and on the oil royalty.

He said that with regard to the oil royalty, Dr Mahathir had mentioned that it would have (negative) impact on Petronas.