Estranged PKR Keningau division chairperson Jeffery Gapari Kitingan, accompanied by leaders allied to him, completed a round of talks in Kuala Lumpur earlier this week in hopes of a rapprochement with the party's national leadership.

Word is rife in PKR circles that a peace deal is imminent that would accommodate factions of the Sabah wing of the party badly split by a dispute over who should be the state supremo.

kitingan project ic 250107 jeffery kitingan Kitingan quit his national vice-president's post after Tamrin Jaini was preferred as Sabah PKR chief by the supreme council in mid-October when the chiefs of Sabah and Sarawak chapters were named.

Just prior to quitting his national post, Kitingan announced that he was going on several months' sabbatical, a decision that signalled his discontent with the way matters were going in the national councils of PKR with respect to the choice of leaders for the state chapter.

Since he joined PKR in October 2006, Kitingan has worked hard to weld Sabah's bewildering array of ethnic/religious groups into a credible coalition willing to support PKR in its professed aim of bringing reform not only to politics on the Peninsula but also in Borneo.

Despite a reputation for party-hopping, Kitingan managed to garner support from the Kadazan/Dusun/Murut community for PKR in the latter's bid to be the harbinger of political change in Sabah.

The first test of change was seen as the willingness of PKR's national leadership to allow the question of who should lead the state chapter to be decided by Sabahans rather than by Kuala Lumpur.

The decision by the national leadership to plump for Tamrin rather than Kitingan was seen as flunking the test. The fallout from that failure threatened to undermine all what the party had achieved in the last three years, especially on the issue of autonomy for Sabahans to decide matters directly affecting their destiny.

In the larger interest of PKR

Though frantic efforts were made to contain the fallout - like the offer to Kitingan to choose the entire state line-up below Tamrin - a compromise was viewed as difficult to achieve if it did not envisage a critical role for Kitingan.

Last week's talks in Kuala Lumpur chewed over various permutations of a state line-up and after much effort was expended in the discussions, the contours of a deal emerged that enabled Kitingan's faction to return to Kota Kinabalu in anticipation of a rapprochement.

Though he was cautious when approached by Malaysiakini for a chat on background, Kitingan appeared mildly optimistic that matters were headed for a deal.

"I have hopes that the spirit of Pakatan Rakyat's Common Policy Framework would be friendly towards the aspirations of Sabahans for an appreciable measure of self-determination," he briefly allowed.

"I have been in touch with Anwar Ibrahim and he has intimated that PR's Common Policy Framework will show appreciation for the necessity of recognizing the Malaysia Agreement under which Sabah and Sarawak helped to form the 1963 Federation ," he added.

"I found Anwar Ibrahim appreciative of this larger context which is why I feel any decision he takes would be fraternal to this spirit," he offered.

He added that he was happy with the concessions that Anwar had made for the sake of the party.