Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan (born 22 October 1947, also known as DDJK or DSPDJK since 2021) is a Malaysian

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

who has served as the Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah I since January 2023 and State Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries of Sabah for the second term since September 2020. He served as the Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah II from October 2020 to his promotion in January 2023 and the first term in the position in May 2018. In January 2023, he was appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister I of Sabah succeeding Bung Mokhtar, who was dropped due to a political crisis (but retained his ministerial portfolio). At the federal level, he served as the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture from March 2020 to his resignation in September 2020 and Deputy Minister of Housing and Local Government from August 1994 to May 1995. He has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for

Keningau Keningau () is the capital of the Keningau District in the Interior Division of Sabah, Malaysia. It is the fifth-largest town in Sabah, as well one of the oldest. Keningau is between Tambunan and Tenom. The town had an estimated population ...

since May 2018, Member of the

Sabah State Legislative Assembly The Sabah State Legislative Assembly ( Kadazandusun: ''Langga' Tinukuan Pogun Sabah'', ) is a part of the legislature of Sabah, Malaysia, the other being the governor of Sabah. The assembly meets at the Sabah State Legislative Assembly Buildin ...

(MLA) for

Tambunan Tambunan () is the capital of the Tambunan District in the Interior Division of Sabah, Malaysia. Its population was estimated to be around 35,667 in 2010. It is located 80 kilometres east of the state capital, Kota Kinabalu (to which is connect ...

since May 2018 and Bingkor from 1994 to 2004 and again from May 2013 to May 2018. He has served and been founding President of the

Homeland Solidarity Party Homeland Solidarity Party ( abbrev: STAR; ) is a Sabah-based political party in Malaysia. The party was founded on 1 July 2016 by Joseph Pairin Kitingan's brother Jeffrey. STAR Party was one of four founding parties of the United Sabah Allia ...

(STAR), a component party of the ruling

Gabungan Rakyat Sabah Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS; ) is a Malaysia, Malaysian Parliamentary group, coalition of Sabah-based parties. It was established in 2020 and then registered in 2022 by former United Alliance of Sabah (GBS) and United Borneo Alliance (UBA) compon ...

(GRS) and a former component party of the

Perikatan Nasional Perikatan Nasional (PN; ) is a Malaysian Parliamentary group, political coalition consisting of Right-wing politics, right-wing and Far-right politics, far-right political parties. It is the second largest political coalition in Dewan Rakyat w ...

(PN) coalition, since July 2016.

Background

He was born in the town of Kota Marudu but hailed from the interior district of

. He graduated with a

Master of Public Administration A Master of Public Administration (MPA) is a specialized professional graduate degree in public administration that prepares students for leadership roles, similar or equivalent to a Master of Business Administration but with an emphasis on the ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

John F. Kennedy School of Government The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

. He has a PhD awarded in 1984 from the

Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is the graduate school of international affairs of Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. Fletcher is one of America's oldest graduate schools of international relations. As of 2017, the student bo ...

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

. His brother,

Joseph Pairin Kitingan Joseph Pairin Kitingan (born 17 August 1940) is a Malaysian politician who served as the 7th Chief Minister of Sabah from April 1985 to March 1994 and Member of Parliament (MP) for Keningau from August 1986 to May 2018. He is founding Presi ...

served as the

Chief Minister of Sabah The chief minister of Sabah is the head of government of Sabah, Malaysia. Since September 2020, the position has been held by Hajiji Noor from the Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (Gagasan Rakyat) from the coalition of Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) w ...

from 1985 to 1994.

Political career

He is known to be a controversial politician, having been detained without trial under the Internal Security Act by the

Barisan Nasional Barisan Nasional (BN; ) is a political coalition of Malaysia that was founded in 1974 as a coalition of centre-right and right-wing political parties to succeed the Alliance Party. It is the third largest political coalition with 30 seats in ...

-controlled federal government under the leadership of then-Prime Minister,

Mahathir Mohamad Mahathir bin Mohamad (; ; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician, author and doctor who was respectively the fourth and seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia, prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003 and from 2018 to 2020. He was the ...

on suspicions of plotting to

secede Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal is the c ...

Sabah from the federation of Malaysia, although his defenders argue that this was a politically motivated move. He is also known to have switched political parties a number of times. In 1990, he started his political career together with his brother

in Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS). However, after the 1994 state election, he abandoned his brother and PBS to join the Angkatan Keadilan Rakyat (AKAR) party, leading to the downfall of the PBS government in Sabah. He tried to climb to the top post of the AKAR party but failed and rejoined PBS in 1996. However, in 1999, he quit PBS again and joined

Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah The United Sabah People's Party (; abbreviated: PBRS) is a minority political party based in Sabah, Malaysia. Presently PBRS is being led by its President Arthur Joseph Kurup. The party was previously led by its founding and first president; ...

(PBRS), tried to take over the party but failed again. He then quit the PBRS party in 2001 and tried to join

United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation The United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (; abbrev: UPKO) is a multiracial political party based in Sabah, Malaysia. The party was rebranded from its previous party's name, United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation using the sa ...

(UPKO). However, he quickly withdrew his membership application from UPKO and tried to join back PBS again for the third time, but PBS did not welcome him back into the party. In 2003, he applied to join the

United Malays National Organisation The United Malays National Organisation (Abbreviation, abbrev: UMNO; , PEKEMBAR) is a Conservatism, conservative, Nationalism, Malay nationalist political party in Malaysia. As the oldest national political party in the country (since its ince ...

(UMNO) twice: one through UMNO headquarters in

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

, but was rejected. He then applied another membership through UMNO

branch in Sabah using his legal name "Gapari bin Kitingan @ Geoffrey Kitingan" and was mistakenly accepted by UMNO. Jeffrey was able to produce his UMNO membership card. However, once the UMNO supreme council realised their error, they immediately revoked Jeffrey's membership. Jeffrey remained independent of any party until he was accepted into

Parti Keadilan Rakyat Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR; ), is a centre-left, reformist political party in Malaysia formed on 3 August 2003 through a merger of the party's predecessor, the National Justice Party, with the socialist Malaysian People's Party. The party's ...

(PKR) in 2006 where he became the vice-president of the party representing the East Malaysian quota. He resigned his vice-president post in 2009 but remained as a party member. In December 2010, Jeffrey founded a NGO named United Borneo Alliance (UBA), which aimed to strive the rights of

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

and

Sarawak Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...

in accordance to 20-point agreement and

Malaysia Agreement The Malaysia Agreement,; or the Agreement relating to Malaysia between United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Federation of Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore (MA63) was a legal document which agreed to combine Nor ...

. He finally quit the PKR party in January 2011. In 2012, Jeffrey launched the Sabah chapter of Sarawak-based State Reform Party (STAR). in 2015, he brought his UBA into

United Sabah Alliance The United Sabah Alliance () was a political coalition bringing together Sabah-based parties in Malaysia. It was jointly founded by the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) and Homeland Solidarity Party (STAR) after the SAPP left the Barisan Nasional ...

(USA), just before he brought his Sabah chapter out of the Sarawak-based STAR to establish a Sabah-based party named

(STAR) in 2016. In the 2008 general election, he challenged his brother Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Joseph Pairin from BN-PBS at the

parliamentary constituency, but lost. Instead, he won the Sabah State Legislative constituency of Bingkor. Jeffrey has been referred as political "

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

" (''katak'' in Malay) for his penchant of party hopping throughout his political career. Jeffrey responded by commenting that party hopping has been the common practice in Sabah politics. He defended himself that he switches parties in order to find the one that is suitable to fight for the rights of the Sabah people.

2018 state election decision maker and subsequent results

Following the 2018 general election, the BN and the

Pakatan Harapan Pakatan Harapan (PH; stylised as HARAPAN; ) is a Malaysian Parliamentary group, political coalition consisting of Centre-left politics, centre-left political parties which was formed in 2015 to succeed the Pakatan Rakyat coalition. It has led ...

(PH) coalition with

Sabah Heritage Party The Heritage Party (; abbrev: WARISAN) is a multi-racial political party in Malaysia which was rebranded and renamed from the Sabah Heritage Party (), a Sabah-based party led by Shafie Apdal formed earlier on 17 October 2016 after its expansi ...

(WARISAN) are tied up with 29-29 seats in the

2018 Sabah state election The 2018 Sabah state election took place on 9 May 2018 in concurrence with the 14th Malaysian general election. This election was to elect 60 members of the 15th Sabah State Legislative Assembly. The previous Assembly was dissolved on 7 April 20 ...

. Jeffrey with his party of

(STAR) under the

(USA) which are not aligned from either the two sides, has won two seats in the election and subsequently emerged as the decision maker for the formation of a state government from the two sides. He then decide to team up with the BN to form coalition state government with him appointed as a Deputy Chief Minister while

Musa Aman Musa bin Aman (Jawi alphabet, Jawi: موسى بن حاج أمان; born 30 March 1951) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the 11th Yang di-Pertua Negeri of Sabah since January 2025. He served as the 14th Chief Minister of Sabah from M ...

from BN continue to become the Chief Minister for another 5 years under the new coalition government. His decision to maintain the position of BN in Sabah then drew many criticism from Sabahan residents who want to see a change under the administration of a new state government with many began to labelling him as a "traitor" towards the state, especially when he was once a staunch opposition towards BN rule before the election. It is also reported that before the election, Jeffrey has been issue with 7-days

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

notice. Following his sudden decision to work with BN, the Sabah branch of PKR has urged the

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (; Jawi: ), abbreviated MACC or ''SPRM'', (formerly known as Anti-Corruption Agency, ACA or ''Badan Pencegah Rasuah'', ''BPR'') is a government agency in Malaysia that investigates and prosecutes corrup ...

(MACC) to probe the two individuals, citing a “possibility of money changing hands between the two” that could leading to a sudden political partnership. Following the complaint, Prime Minister

announced that they will not recognise the election in Sabah if corruption involved. Situation also change when six seats assemblymen from the BN allied party of UPKO switched their allegiance to WARISAN, giving the

Shafie Apdal Mohd Shafie bin Apdal (Jawi alphabet, Jawi: محمد شافعي بن أفضل; born 20 October 1957) is a Malaysian people, Malaysian politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Semporna (federal constituency), Semporna since ...

party an advantage with 35 seats which sufficient to establish a valid state government. In addition, the Sabah

Yang di-Pertua Negeri In Malaysia, the Governor, officially Yang di-Pertua Negeri (Jawi script, Jawi: , ) is a constitutional title given to the head of state in States and federal territories of Malaysia, states without a ruler, namely: Penang, Malacca, Sabah and S ...

(TYT) Juhar Mahiruddin also had requested Musa to step down from his position, as Musa current position has contravened the Article 7(1) of the Sabah State Constitution when he lost the total majority state seats. On 14 May 2018, a letter from TYT are being delivered to Musa residence which stating that he is no longer the Chief Minister effective from 12 May 2018. During the 2020 Malaysian political crisis, Jeffrey supported

to be reinstated as Prime Minister after his resignation.

2020 state election

In the

2020 Sabah state election The 2020 Sabah state election took place on 26 September 2020 to elect all 73 elected members of the 16th Sabah State Legislative Assembly. The previous Assembly was dissolved on 30 July 2020. The state snap election was called prematurely a ...

, he agreed to lead his party,

STAR A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

to join the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition in unseating the Warisan Plus coalition. This resulted in his party winning 6 seats in the state election, Jeffrey himself won the

seat. After winning the election, he was appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister II, serving with Bung Mokhtar as Deputy Chief Minister I and Joachim Gunsalam as Deputy Chief Minister III. On the day of his appointment as Deputy Chief Minister II, he resigned as Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture.

Carbon credit deal

In late 2021,

Mongabay Mongabay (mongabay.com) is an American conservation news web portal that reports on environmental science, energy, and green design, and features extensive information on tropical rainforests, including pictures and deforestation statistics f ...

reported that Jeffrey was involved in a

carbon credit Carbon offsetting is a carbon trading mechanism that enables entities to compensate for offset greenhouse gas emissions by investing in projects that reduce, avoid, or remove emissions elsewhere. When an entity invests in a carbon offsetting p ...

deal that was signed in October 2021 that declared 2 million hectares as protected areas, without the consultation of

indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

residing there. Civil society groups and indigenous leaders were critical over the secrecy of the agreement and whether the carbon accrediting company, Hoch Standard, had prior experience to implement it.

Personal life

Jeffrey is currently married to Cecilia Edwin Yatam-Kitingan, a fellow native of Tambunan who hailed from a village named Kampung Monsok (he was from another village known as Kampung Karanaan), whilst he is separated from his

Caucasian American White Americans (sometimes also called Caucasian Americans) are Americans who identify as white people. In a more official sense, the United States Census Bureau, which collects demographic data on Americans, defines "white" as " person having ...

wife, Susan. In January 2021, Jeffrey tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

and underwent treatment at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Both Jeffrey and his wife recovered and discharged from hospital after about two weeks later.

Election results

Honours

Honours of Malaysia

* : **

MY Pingat Pertabalan Yang di-Pertuan Agong XVII ribbon

Recipient of the 17th Yang di-Pertuan Agong Installation Medal ** MY Darjah Jasa Negara - Order of Meritorious Service - PJN

Commander of the

Order of Meritorious Service The Distinguished Order of Meritorious Service () is a Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting ...

(PJN) – Datuk (2021) * : ** MY-SAB Order of Kinabalu - PGDK

Commander of the

Order of Kinabalu The Illustrious Order of Kinabalu (Malay: ''Darjah Yang Amat Mulia Kinabalu'') is the only order conferred by the Governor of Sabah, Malaysia. Background The Illustrious Order of Kinabalu is established by virtue of Section 3(a) of State Honou ...

(PGDK) – Datuk (1987) ** MY-SAB Order of Kinabalu - SPDK

Grand Commander of the

(SPDK) – Datuk Seri Panglima (2020) ** Justice of the Peace (JP) (2022)

Kadazan, Dusun, Murut & Rungus (KDMR) tribes honours

*Huguan Siou Lundu Mirongod (2015) **On 16 December 2015, Jeffrey Kitingan was given the title of Huguan Siou Lundu Mirongod which means the brave paramount thinker of the tribe. The installation of this title was done by the keeper of the ''Adat'' or customs and traditions of the

Kadazan-Dusun Kadazandusun (also written as Kadazan-Dusun or Mamasok) are the largest ethnic group in Sabah, Malaysia, an amalgamation of the closely related indigenous peoples, indigenous Kadazan people, Kadazan and Dusun people, Dusun peoples. "Kadazandus ...

, Tindarama Bobolian Chief, OKK Aman Sirom Simbuna bin OT Tarantab in Kota Belud. This is the second highest honorific title in the Kadazan-Dusun tribe after ''

Huguan Siou Huguan County () is a county in the southeast of Shanxi province, China. It is under the administration of Changzhi city. Huguan county is the location of Huguan Taihang Grand Canyon, which is one of the AAAAA Tourist Attractions of China AAAAA ...

''.