True to the colourful form of Sabah politics, even after the Gaya parliamentary by-election has come and gone, the war of words has not ended not even within the victorious Barisan Nasional camp.

Call it envy or sour grapes, the state's leading predominantly Kadazandusun-based Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), which returned recently to the BN fold and as expected delivered most of the indigenous group's votes to the front in the by-election, has come under harsh words from another, much smaller, Kadazandusun-based party, Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS).

After top BN leaders, including Prime Minister and BN chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad, acknowledged PBS' big role in the ruling front's win in Gaya, an unhappy PBRS president Joseph Kurup said PBS should not claim all the credit for securing the Kadazandusun votes for BN.

This prompted PBS deputy president Dr Maximus Ongkili, who is also member of Parliament for Bandau, to term Kurup's statement as "uncalled for".

Misread comments

In a statement, he said Kurup, who defected from PBS to form PBRS in a series of events in 1994 that caused the collapsed of the opposition PBS government, had misread public comments on PBS' contribution to the by-election victory.

"Neither PBS leaders nor Barisan Nasional leaders have ever said that the outstanding victory of the BN candidate Liew Teck Chan (photo) was due solely to the PBS machinery," he said.

An internal leadership crisis in PBRS led five of their seven state assembly representatives to join PBS and the party is now left with only one (nominated) representative, Kurup. The seventh, Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, is now considered an opposition representative.

Ongkili said PBS had "a daunting task" to ensure that past votes for PBS in Gaya were converted into BN votes to secure a solid win for their candidate.

The results are there for all to see all polling centres dominated by then opposition PBS in the past were won handsomely in the recent by-election by the BN with minimal opposition, especially in Kadazandusun areas such as Poring-Poring, Kokol, Telipok Darat, Cenderakasih and Inanam Darat.

Sabah BN secretary Karim Bujang in his statement said all BN component parties should accept that PBS played an important role in helping the coalition defend the Gaya seat.

TONY THIEN is malaysiakini 's correspondent in Kuching.