I refer to the letter Jeffrey's return to PKR merely to save face .

Poor Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, he is getting all the brickbats and insults from all over. But in all these denigrations, we can see a consistent thread of fear among the state PKR liaison committee members.

The true impact of Jeffrey's influence and calibre as a political leader is showing too clearly in the fact that they are being terrorised merely by the thought of him coming back to PKR Sabah. He has burned his bridges but obviously the bridge can still be crossed despite the charred cables and planks. And they cannot burn this bridge from the other end because the top guy wants him back.

This situation is creating a state of consternation and panic among people like the writer who has overstepped his bounds in attacking Jeffrey. They attacked the man when they thought there would be no possibility in him coming back into the fold waving a new flag. Being political novices, they had forgotten the old adage in politics: ‘In politics there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies’.

Now they think that the best option is increase the attacks, to accelerate the salvos, believing that this will destroy Jeffrey once and for all. They had loudly proclaimed in the blogs Jeffrey's political career has passed, short of calling him anachronistic. But there is a wise advice to denigrators: ‘Do not overdo it, lest you be thought as the fool instead’.

Who are these people to insult Jeffrey and to judge Jeffrey's performances? What are their background and leadership credibility to make any professional assessment of what is really going on in PKR now? How knowledgeable can they really be to evaluate the delicate balance of powers within the party hierarchy, considering the realities of present Malaysian politics?

These people need to look at politics not as a field for personal attacks but as a field for fighting for the truth, to call a spade a spade. They are to promote peace, reconciliation and justice based on the truth, and not to shoot blindly, making all sorts of wild accusations and ideas, hoping their bullets will hit and kill this giant opponent of theirs.

They invented the idea that Jeffrey's return to PKR was only to save face. What? And how on earth did they come up with the story that Jeffrey was rejected by Sapp? When did Jeffrey ever have the poor judgement that Sapp was his best political alternative? And why would Yong Teck Lee reject Jeffrey?

If Jeffrey ever knocked on Sapp's door, wouldn't Yong open it so wide that even ten elephants would be able to enter it together with the loud clanging of cymbals and the beating of lion-dance drums?

Sapp is in a political position where a Jeffrey connection would benefit it hugely, knowing what support Jeffrey had brought to PKR Sabah. The writer's argument that Jeffrey would erode the support of Sapp is simply too difficult to believe. It simply doesn't make sense.

As far as I am concerned, Jeffrey's return to his position as national VP is an act of face-saving – not for him but for PKR! Jeffrey can be seen as sacrificing his personal interests by reconciling with Anwar Ibrahim, against the wishes of many of his supporters who had mostly committed to the idea of ditching PKR and going for different political alternatives.

Now Jeffrey has to deal with the possibility of losing many of the divisional leaders previously aligned to him. But these disgruntled divisional leaders (who are adamant about not going back to PKR with him) will have to pay a political price.

They will have to look for new platforms when new leaders in their respective areas will come to the forefront to take over their places. They are not indispensable - nobody is.