KOTA KINABALU: Sabah can only move forward and develop according to its vision and preferred timeline, if it had the financial capacity and a united political front, says Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan (pic).
He said like in Sarawak, Sabah too wished to progress more independently in terms of development instead of depending too much on the Federal government.
"To do so, we must overcome two challenges, which is to unite the people and to increase our financial capacity," he said after a meet the people session with his party - Sabah STAR – here on Friday (Dec 10).
Kitingan said being able to make decisions and act on plans for the state, did not equal succession.
"We just want better control of our state rights and developments," he said.
"This means we are moving in tandem with Sarawak and we want to make sure that we grow as a nation.
"If Sabah is strong financially and politically, it contributes to the political stability in Malaysia," he added.
Kitingan also repeated the importance and significance of the Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA) to allow Sabah to generate more revenue for the state.
"This is one way we can increase our financial capacity, through conservation. Conservation is the in thing right now," he said.
Earlier, the event saw Sabah STAR accepting over 1,000 membership applications, which included former Upko treasurer and former Putatan MP Datuk Marcus Mojigoh.
Kitingan said Mojigoh’s entry into Sabah STAR would further strengthen the party and hopefully get more members.
Asked if Sabah STAR already had an aim of how many seats, or which seats they wished to contest in the next general election, he said not yet.
"Of course, every party wants to contest all seats if possible, but working as a team in a coalition government, we have to have proper discussions," he said.
Kitigan said the party was gearing up its election machinery and are working towards fixing their flaws and identifying their strengths.
"We need to be very much prepared for the polls to be held any time," he said.