In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 22 October 1948
- Birthplace
- Kota Marudu, Sabah
- Country
- Malaysia
- Nationality
- Malaysian
- Known for
- Advocating Sabah rights across several parties and founding the present-day STAR
- Full name
- Gapari bin Katingan @ Geoffrey Kitingan
- Party office
- Founding President of Sabah STAR
- Parliamentary seat
- Keningau, since 2018
- State seat
- Tambunan, since 2018
- Former state office
- Sabah Deputy Chief Minister, 2018 and 2020–2025
Why this life matters
Jeffrey’s career connects Kadazandusun politics, detention under the Internal Security Act, repeated party realignment and the regionalist campaigns that shaped GRS and its opposition.
Timeline
Key moments
Born in Kota Marudu
Born in North Borneo and raised within the family that also produced PBS founder Joseph Pairin Kitingan.
Led policy research in Sabah
Directed the Institute for Development Studies and worked on state development and demographic questions.
Detained under the Internal Security Act
Was held without trial during federal–state tension over alleged separatist activity, which he denied.
Entered elected and federal office
Won Bingkor and briefly served as deputy housing and local government minister.
Built Sabah STAR
Led a Sabah branch of the State Reform Party before registering a separate Homeland Solidarity Party.
Won Keningau and Tambunan
Captured both federal and state seats and briefly became a kingmaker in the disputed government formation.
Served as deputy chief minister
Joined the GRS government and led Sabah’s agriculture and fisheries portfolio.
Left GRS and moved to the opposition
STAR contested separately, won Tambunan and Bingkor, and declared that it would remain outside the new government.
Education, research and the Kitingan political family
Jeffrey Kitingan was born in Kota Marudu in 1948 and is the younger brother of Joseph Pairin Kitingan, the founder of Parti Bersatu Sabah. He pursued postgraduate public-policy studies at Harvard and became associated with research on Sabah’s development and demographic change.
As director of the Institute for Development Studies, Jeffrey worked inside the policy institutions of the PBS era. His later testimony to Sabah’s Royal Commission of Inquiry described research on undocumented migration and identity documents as an important part of his early public work.
ISA detention and the politics of Sabah rights
The federal government detained Jeffrey under the Internal Security Act from 1991 to 1994 during a period of intense tension with the PBS state administration. Authorities linked him to alleged separatist activity; Jeffrey denied seeking secession and presented his advocacy as a defence of constitutional state rights.
Detention became a defining element of his political identity. It reinforced his focus on Malaysia Agreement 1963, immigration, revenue and the distribution of federal powers—issues that would remain central across later party affiliations and elections.
Elected office and repeated party realignment
Jeffrey won the Bingkor state seat in 1994 and briefly became a federal deputy minister. Over the next two decades he moved through PBS, AKAR, PBRS and PKR before organising a Sabah branch of the Sarawak-based State Reform Party in 2012.
Those moves led critics to portray him as a serial party switcher. His own political through-line was regionalism: he repeatedly argued that Sabah parties and leaders should have greater control over state policy. Both readings are necessary to understand why his organisational vehicles changed while his central message remained recognisable.
STAR, GRS and executive office
Jeffrey established the present-day Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku, commonly called Sabah STAR, in 2016. He won Keningau and Tambunan in 2018, when STAR’s two assembly seats briefly determined whether BN or the Warisan-aligned bloc could form the state government.
STAR later joined the alliance that became GRS. After the 2020 election, Jeffrey served as deputy chief minister and minister responsible for agriculture and fisheries. ISEAS analysis described the party’s support as concentrated in Kadazandusun interior constituencies and closely tied to his regionalist leadership.
Leaving GRS and returning to opposition
STAR left GRS before the 2025 election after disagreeing over electoral cooperation with national parties. The party contested widely but won only Tambunan and Bingkor; Jeffrey retained Tambunan and remained MP for Keningau.
He then stated that STAR would stay in opposition rather than join Hajiji Noor’s new government. The shift completed another turn in a career shaped by the tension between access to executive power and the claim that local parties must remain independent enough to press Sabah’s constitutional demands.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Jeffrey Kitingan
- Who is Jeffrey Kitingan?
- Jeffrey Kitingan is a president of STAR and Member of Parliament for Keningau. Jeffrey’s career connects Kadazandusun politics, detention under the Internal Security Act, repeated party realignment and the regionalist campaigns that shaped GRS and its opposition.
- What is Jeffrey Kitingan best known for?
- Jeffrey Kitingan is best known for advocating Sabah rights across several parties and founding the present-day STAR.
- When and where was Jeffrey Kitingan born?
- Jeffrey Kitingan was born on 22 October 1948 in Kota Marudu, Sabah.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. Parliament of MalaysiaMember profile: Keningau
- 2. Royal Commission of InquiryRoyal Commission of Inquiry on Immigrants in Sabah: witness record
- 3. ISEAS – Yusof Ishak InstituteThe Battle for Sabah: Key Players, Critical Issues and Potential Scenarios
- 4. BERNAMASTAR will stay in opposition
- 5. Sabah State Legislative AssemblySabah State Assembly sitting record, 16 December 2025
- 6. Wikimedia CommonsJeffrey Kitingan portrait and public-domain record
