Is there life after Pairin?

PBS (Parti Bersatu Sabah) chief Joseph Pairin Kitingan, a formidable chess player in his day and once the darling of the Malaysian public, isn’t a man in a great hurry these days, and that may yet prove to be his undoing although no one is betting on it as yet in any great numbers.

Still, there are any number of people throughout Malaysia, especially among the Christian communities, who would be glad to see the back of Pairin, believing that he has lost the plot. No one sees a halo around him anymore.

How did this lion of a man eventually settle for less than what is due to him and his people? The answer lies in the rise and fall of this elder of the Kitingan clan of 16 brothers and sisters and even more numerous in the extended family and relatives. How does Pairin struggle to stay relevant even as he feel his age!

It seems only yesterday that his then newly-registered political party, with hardly any branches and membership, seized the reins of power in Kota Kinabalu, albeit with a razor-thin majority over the Barisan Nasional in the hastily-called 1985 state elections.

This was a political tsunami equal to that in the May 10 general election when the Opposition almost ousted the ruling Barisan Nasional (then known as the Alliance) just three days before the searing Sino-Malay race riots of Friday May 13.

Pairin, the hopelessly outnumbered underdog in 1985, not surprisingly gripped the national consciousness as a leader like no other, and one who could lead the way towards a Malaysia where the BN would be soon history. Alas, it was not to be and there was a botched attempt in 1990 in alliance with Umno rebels ex-finance minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and ex-deputy premier Tun Musa Hitam.

To be fair to Pairin, he tried, but Mahathir played the race card and raised the prospects of a Christian playing kingmaker in the polls. Mahathir’s call, which would go largely unheeded today, struck a chord then among rural Peninsular Malaysian voters in the absence of the alternative media and confined Pairin to his home state while dealing the death blow to Razaleigh and Musa. The rest is history.

Calls to step down

Nearly a quarter century later, there are growing murmurs of discontent within his party against Pairin, also the Huguan Siou (paramount chief) of the KadazanDusuns, once the dominant majority in the state until swamped by hordes of impoverished illegal immigrants from the nearby Philippines and Indonesia.

Now, there are calls for Pairin to step aside and make way for his deputy and nephew Dr Maximus Jonity Ongkili, also the Federal Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation.

“Pairin should step down as it is time for someone with more energy, calibre and charisma to lead the party,” says PBS Kiulu divisional chief Sindin Ranggangon who openly questions Pairin’s relevance.

“The performance of the party under Pairin has been on the downslide. This is evident from the reduced number of votes and defeats of two PBS candidates in the March 8 election.”

“I want to tell PBS members not to crack their heads over when I will step down,” said Pairin, also a deputy CM and Rural Development Minister when officiating the PBS Tanjung Aru and Petagas divisions’ joint annual meeting over the weekend in Kota Kinabalu. “It will happen as this is not something difficult and it will take place in the future.”

PBS secretary-general Raden Malleh thinks that “Pairin still enjoys the full support of party members and grassroots. He added that there was no hurry for a leadership handover “and Dr Max and the others can wait for their time”.

The prospect of Dr Max taking on his uncle is an unthinkable one and most political analysts and observers are almost sure that it will never happen. Party elections, slated for next year, will be a tame affair as usual.

This is not the first time that Dr Max has been thrust into the limelight over the future direction of the party leadership. In a previous encounter, several years ago, Dr Max found himself at the centre of a controversy involving Pairin’s younger brother, Dr Jeffrey Gimpoi Kitingan, who saw himself as the heir apparent.

Dr Jeffrey, however, seemed to be in too much of a hurry to get his elder brother to focus on his ceremonial role as Huguan Siou. His theory was that Pairin had politicized the paramount chief’s post by engaging himself in politics at the same time as the PBS chief.

“This is divisive,” was Dr Jeffrey’s constant theme. He was even not above informing the media, without an iota of evidence, that his brother was thinking of accepting the High Commissioner’s post to Australia. The claims were dismissed by party leaders. Suspicion was rife that Mahathir had encouraged Jeffrey to get his brother to go into political exile for a while.

Party stalwarts gathered around Pairin in a solid show of support and soon showed Jeffrey the door. Jeffrey was long in the political wilderness until fallen angel Anwar Ibrahim’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat gave him a new lease of life as the party’s deputy Sabah chief. He has set his sights on gunning for his brother and the PBS although as brothers they are close.

“Dr Jeffrey’s beef is mostly with Dr Max,” says a PBS insider who was once aligned with the younger Kitingan. “He’s sore that he has been left out of the leadership despite making enormous sacrifices for the party, including a long spell in political detention under the Internal Security Act.”

Jeffrey was accused by the Mahathir government of planning an armed uprising to take Sabah out of the Malaysian Federation. Kuala Lumpur did not provide any proof of such claims but that did not stop Mahathir from incarcerating Jeffrey for two years without being brought to court to face any charges. Nephew Dr Max was roped in as well but he was in for a much shorter spell after elder brother and onetime Sabah deputy CM Dr James Ongkili, successfully interceded with Mahathir.

Grassroots base may be shrinking

Much of Pairin’s appeal with the grassroots lies in his close relationship with the Catholic Church which draws the majority of its faithful from the KadazanDusun heartland in Tambunan and the interior regions of the state. This cosy relationship has seen Pairin breeze through any number of challenges in his parliamentary seat in Keningau and state seat in Tambunan.

It is not known how much of this appeal still holds sway over the younger generation but one problem for the anti-Pairin campaigners has been the fact that many KadazanDusun voters in their 20s and 30s have migrated for work to Singapore and states like Johore, Selangor and Penang in Peninsular Malaysia.

The older generation are diehard Pairin supporters who still dream that he will one day find the tataba (the magical wand of power) and rule like in the years 1985-1994 over a state which they consider their only ancestral home and not be ruled by others, and if so, not for long.

However, the numbers are against the non-Muslim KadazanDusun who along with the related Murut now number about 26 per cent, a far cry from the 50 per cent at the advent of independence in 1963. Immigrants from nearby lands, the Chinese community and various Muslim communities including KadazanDusun tribes like the Dusun Ranau, Bisaya and Orang Sungei make up the rest.

“The Huguan Siou, minus the influence of the Catholic Church and political parties, could help unite the various KadazanDusun communities across religious and political lines,” is the thinking among the younger generation.

That might be easier said than done.

Many PBS members outside Pairin’s traditional Tambunan stronghold have still not forgiven him for allowing the splintering of the party and the emergence of breakaways since 1994. UPKO (United Pasok Momogun Kadazandusun Organisation) led by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Bernard Giluk Dompok; PBRS (Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah) led by Federal Deputy Minister Joseph Kurup and Sapp (Sabah Progressive Party) led by Yong Teck Lee are all splinter groups from PBS which became component members of the Barisan Nasional.

PBS was eventually allowed to re-join the BN after its strength had been considerably whittled down, although Mahathir had once vowed that “the doors of the ruling coalition were not only permanently closed to the party, the keys have been thrown away”.

Most likely successor

Is there life after Pairin? Who could replace him?

Political analysts and observers are placing all their bets on Bernard as the most solid of the lot – “He says what he means, and means what he says,” say critics and admirers alike - and Dr Jeffrey a distant second. They think that both men are capable of stepping into Pairin’s shoes and uniting the community again although Dr Max is not ruled out either as a man who could contribute as well to the good of the community.

However, Dr Max like Pairin, was found wanting when certain Umno leaders raised the idea of ketuanan Melayu ( Malay political supremacy), in Sabah late last month. The Malay community is a very small one in Sabah, being confined mostly to the 50,000-odd strong Brunei Malays.

Already, there are still unresolved issues from a growing dissatisfaction over the power-sharing formula in the state. Both Pairin and Dr Max have also been lukewarm on the issue of illegal immigration, forcing a senior PBS leader, Dr Chong Eng Leong, to quit the party recently citing lack of support on the issue of illegals.

“The last tuan (the colonial British) left in 1963,” retorted Bernard. “There are no tuans and coolies now.” He won quick support from Dr Jeffrey as well as the legions of letter writers in the state.

The “storm in a teacup” first broke out when Sabah deputy CM Yahya Hussein, accused Dr Marcus Mojigoh, Putatan MP from PBS, of being “ungrateful” to Umno for the party’s help in ensuring his win and demanded that he “give back” the seat to the party.

Both Pairin and Dr Max were silent, an indication of just how deep PBS had fallen under the duo from its glory days in 1985 when KadazanDusun community leaders openly insisted that they, and only they, had a right to rule in a state which they considered only theirs long before others came along.