KOTA KINABALU: Deputy Sabah Chief Minister-cum-president of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), Joseph Pairin Kitingan, may be having second thoughts about contesting in the coming general election.
PBS insiders said Pairin, 73, is finally “convinced” of the opposition’s strength in his Keningau and Tambunan constituencies and is worried about the growing threat.
Pairin has been Tambunan assemblyman uninterruptedly for almost four decades, since 1976. He has been Keningau MP for almost 30 years from 1986.
He first won Tambunan at the age of 36 under Berjaya, the party he ousted from power in 1985 after a prolonged skirmish with Berjaya president Harris Salleh.
Pairin, who is PBS founder president, is also the only chief the party has seen since its inception in 1985 (28 years ago). Pairin is the huguan siou or paramount chief of the Kadazandusuns in Sabah.
But that too may soon be history.
According to a senior PBS leader who spoke to FMT, Pairin is aware of his own precarious position in Keningau and Tambunan.
Requesting anonymity, the PBS leader said: “Pairin may not even contest at all at the coming polls because it would be humiliating if he is defeated. But I think he will still win in Tambunan if he decides to go for only one seat..”
Not healthy
The leader, who is a PBS supreme council member and has helped Pairin in previous elections, added that Pairin could decide to stay away from the 13th GE.
“But Pairin not contesting at all cannot be ruled out from now onwards…” said the leader.
Pairin, who is far from healthy, has taken pains to calm growing worry among his PBS members upset by rumours that he was leaving the scene.
At the party’s general meeting last year, he repeatedly reassured them that he was ready to be renominated and was in fact prepared to defend his Tambunan and Keningau seats.
According to the leader, Pairin’s choice of words – “prepared”, “ready” – lacked the affirmative “wanting” or “wanted”.
“Even then he only spoke about it as a reaction when it is no longer tenable to keep silent amid rumours and whispers,” said the leader.
According to the PBS leader, there is a strong likelihood that other PBS assemblymen too would refuse renomination if Pairin is to leave politics altogether at this election, contributing to more worries and intrigues that would plague PBS in the end.
“Even deputy president Maximus Ongkili has been texting his friends that he foresees the coming election could be his last term in active politics.
“Other PBS leaders including its assemblymen, in return had started whispering to friends what would become of PBS without a strong presence of the once charismatic Pairin,” the leader said.
Embattled party
He pointed out that news of an eventual exit of some of its veteran leaders like Ongkili was affecting morale in the already embattled party.
Foremost threatening PBS seats is the fast-surging State Reform Party (STAR) led by Pairin’s own brother Jeffrey Kitingan.
“People wanted to see hope in PBS, but the party has a problem with its delayed leadership transition. Now transition is not a welcome thing in PBS although it is even more necessary now to re-energise the party, especially when the current leadership is considered already in a burn-out stage,” he stressed.
He added that even those still within PBS have started asking what is that Pairin can do now that he was unable to accomplish when he was younger. Being the strongest ally of Umno in Sabah does no good for PBS either,” he said.
He added that fear of PBS not responding correctly to rising popular demand for a replacement of the corrupt Umno-led Barisan Nasional would further diminish PBS’ appeal to electorate.
“Any wrong signal sent out and it would cause untold despair in PBS, already a declining party in Sabah, thanks to Umno’s own arrogance and hegemony,” he said.
