PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim has reportedly gone into “damage control” mode in Sabah after his pick of Ahmad Thamrin Jaini as the party’s state chief set off alarm bells among division chiefs followed by the resignation of party vice-president Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan.

Jeffrey told Malaysiakini tonight he was resigning as PKR vice- president with immediate effect adding a letter was on its way to PKR's headquarters.

However, he said still remains a member of the party. He declined to state the reasons for his resignation.

Jeffrey's resignation as vice-president also means that he's no longer a member of the PKR supreme council and a member of its National Political Bureau.

The division chiefs had nominated Jeffrey for the post of Sabah PKR chief, but Anwar trashed this last Sunday during a supreme council meeting. Thamrin is the Libaran division chief and Sabah PKR secretary.

salehuddin hashim interview 110408 neutral Late yesterday morning, Anwar sent party secretary-general Salehuddin Hashim (right) to hold a heart-to-heart talk with Jeffrey at an undisclosed location in Kuala Lumpur.

Salehuddin tried to persuade Jeffrey to go along with the appointment of Thamrin, but got no joy out of the meeting.

Anwar, it is learnt, was in a “panic” mode when Salehuddin reported back to him. In turn, he tried to set up a 9.30pm face-to-face meeting with Jeffrey, but the calls went unanswered.

(Salehuddin himself is mired in controversy following rumours that he had quit his secretary-general post today after falling out with the party leadership.)

An aide was sent to meet Jeffrey, but was told that the meeting would not be possible as the latter would be on his way back to Kota Kinabalu by then.

Jeffrey, confirming the attempts made, declined to go into the details.

“All I can tell you is that Salehuddin requested that I persuade Kota Kinabalu division chief Christina Liew to meet with him in Kota Kinabalu on Wednesday,” he said.

“I said that I would convey his message but could not promise to make sure she would turn up for the meeting.”

'Clearer picture soon’

Asked why he didn’t pick up Anwar’s calls, Jeffrey said that the battery was “running low” on his mobile phone and he could have been charging it at the time.

“Everything will become clearer in a week and you will get the full picture in three weeks at the latest. But we will be having an informal meeting of the majority of divisional chiefs today," he said.

It is not known whether the division chiefs would meet at the same time as the KadazanDusunMurut Task Force which claims to control 18 of the 25 PKR divisions in the state.

kitingan project ic 250107 jeffery kitingan The mood among the task force members is to boycott the new state line-up to be announced by Thamrin.

Early this afternoon, it became clear why Anwar wanted to meet Jeffrey - to propose that he accepts Thamrin’s appointment and in return, nominate the new state line-up.

Anwar has reportedly dispatched Michael Bong from Sarawak to meet Jeffrey ( left ) in Kota Kinabalu and convey his latest peace offer.

Bong is said to be close to Anwar.

Prior to his resignation announcement, when contacted at 8pm after his marathon meeting with the division chiefs, Jeffrey confirmed that Bong had been in contact with him several times this afternoon by phone.

Each time, he tried to persuade Jeffrey to accept Thamrin as PKR state chief and in return Anwar would let him (Jeffrey) nominate the entire new state line-up. Jeffrey was also asked to name the PKR committees that he wanted to head.

'Thumping the tables'

Finally, Bong indicated that Anwar was willing to delay naming the new state line-up to allow Jeffrey and the division chiefs to consider his peace offer.

“I told Bong to tell Anwar that it’s too late. I have already burnt my bridges,” said Jeffrey.

Asked what he meant by that, he said he would make a decision by mid-January when his leave would be over. He indicated that he probably woudn’t be returning to PKR. “I may decide sooner before the three months end,” said Jeffrey. "I can always do something else."

Jeffrey felts that all the problems facing Sabah PKR could have been avoided if Anwar had communicated directly with the division leaders instead of relying on emissaries.

“Anwar himself has not been in contact with me for some time,” said Jeffrey. “We are no longer going to be used by these people (in Kuala Lumpur) for their own politics.”

Asked how the meeting of division chiefs went, he replied. “They were thumping the tables. They are with me all the way, no matter what I do.”