Parti Bersatu Sabah's (PBS) growing clout within the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) is seen in Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) Deputy President Chin Su Phin’s axing from an important government post this week. 

LDP’s calls for change and reform within the ruling coalition was conjectured to have helped effect his departure.

Chin was replaced this week as Sabah Housing and Town Planning Board Deputy Chairman by Tandek state assemblyperson Anita Baranting of PBS.

“It’s ironic that Chin’s post should go to PBS and not someone from LDP,” pointed out former Sabah Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Deputy Chair Daniel John Jambun. “This shows that PBS and Umno aside, all other parties in Sabah BN are redundant.”

joseph pairin kitingan 010706 LDP had expected to replace Sapp when the it pulled out from the coalition on Sept 17, 2008, he noted.

Instead, “to its great discomfort”, the party saw PBS stepping into the vacuum left by Sapp.

“Now, PBS is replacing LDP in BN,” said Daniel. “This underlines the strength of PBS, in particular party president Joseph Pairin Kitingan ( right ), in propping up Umno in Sabah.”

Chin’s removal, according to Daniel, is no doubt meant to serve as a warning to United Pasok Momogun KadazanDusunMurut Organisation (Upko) and Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) to toe the line or face a similar fate.

"This is not likely to have any effect," predicted Daniel. “They are not interested in token posts but on having a meaningful share of political power.”

Both parties have been in the news of late, like LDP, for questioning the so-called power sharing concept and the oft-cited BN spirit.

Tuaran MP and Upko Deputy President Wilfred Bumburing is among those publicly casting doubts on the BN. Upko’s Tuaran strongman Kalakau Untol quit the party in recent weeks and has since joined PKR.

Upko President Bernard Giluk Dompok and Sapp President Yong Teck Lee, the architects of the PBS pullout from BN in 1990, meanwhile have been seen meeting several times in recent months to see how they can work together again.

merdeka statement launch 020807 bernard dompok Dompok ( left ), it is learnt, also had a meeting in Kuala Lumpur earlier this week with Common Interest Group Malaysia (CigMa) chair Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan and close aides but it is not known what they discussed. Jeffrey is also PKR vice president.

PBRS President and Deputy Federal Minister Joseph Kurup has been lamenting in the local media that his party had nothing to show 16 years after it broke away from the PBS just after the watershed 1994 state elections.

LDP first came under suspicion in BN after party youth chief Chin Shu Ying reportedly called recently for the chief minister’s post to be rotated again.

 Later, he claimed that he was misquoted by the local media and clarified that party members and leaders in fact want the chief minister’s and state cabinet minister’s posts to be limited to three terms or a maximum 12 years. He cited the term limit on the US presidency as a case in point.

He also wants the appointment of the chief minister to be decided by the state BN component parties and not in Kuala Lumpur. However, he noted that this was easier said than done since the last BN Sabah meeting was held several years ago.

Open to all

Further, he suggested that the chief minister’s post should not just be confined to Sabah Umno and should be open to all “regardless of race, religion or party”.

“Our suggestions are meant to protect the interest and the future of our children,” explained Chin who has had public expressions of support from party chief and Federal Deputy Minister V K Liew. “They should not be subject to the possibility of rule by a dictator that can cause a government and nation to fail.”

Daniel thinks that nothing will come out of LDP’s call for such changes and reform within Sabah BN unless PBS takes up the challenge as well.

“In the meantime, it’s just so much hot air. These mosquito parties can’t do much except vent their frustrations in public. At best, LDP can only continue to be a Sapp-style thorn in BN.”

 

He suspects that LDP’s reform agenda is an afterthought along the lines of Sapp which found itself out in the political cold when PBS was re-accepted back in the BN on May 6, 2003 i.e. 13 years after it bolted from the coalition.

dr jeffery gopari kitingan “LDP emerged from the ashes of the Berjaya Party after it was decimated by PBS at the 1985 state elections,” recalled Daniel. “The party had hoped to woo the Chinese away from PBS but that didn’t happen. Now the party must ask itself why people must even bother with it.”

Daniel sees the return of the various PBS splinter parties to the mothership and a merger with LDP as the only way out of the current political impasse for the redundant parties in Sabah BN.

“Jeffrey ( right ) has a standing invitation from PBS to return and wo.rk on this re-unification of the party. But he’s still hesitating,” said Daniel. “No one knows what he sees in PKR which is another dead end in Sabah.”