PBS a damper on KDM unity, says party
Published on: Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) should stop boasting about being the second largest political party in the Barisan Nasional (BN) even after losing six seats in the last general election.Parti Kerjasama Anak Negeri President Datuk Henrynus Amin said he regretted that PBS has arrogantly rejected the Tataba initiative to unite and merge PBS, Upko, and Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) prior to GE13 which was originally intended to strengthen the Momogun voice within BN.He claimed that a small group of powerful PBS leaders with deep hatred and distrust of Upko and PBRS conspired to sabotage the Tataba plan from the very beginning.
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He said even former Upko President Tan Sri Bernard G Dompok was open to the idea of merger and was willing to discuss without pre condition while PBRS President Tan Sri Joseph Kurup was interested on condition there is sincerity."But top political leaders in PBS were pouring cold water due to their deep distrust and even hatred of Upko and PBRS leaders. This group of selfish PBS leaders insisted on Upko and PBRS to first disband before their members were allowed to re-join PBS."Tataba unity project which I was the Sabah Chief Coordinator was a CSR project privately funded by a certain public listed company obtained through his personal connection with a certain individual then as PBS Secretary General," he said in a statement, Tuesday.Henrynus said Tataba CSR unity Project was implemented in 2012 with the close cooperation of the then Secretary General of Upko and also the current Secretary General of PBRS as part of confidence building measures to promote PBS-Upko-PBRS unity and close cooperation and possibly leading to future merger within the BN framework.
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"In fact, the then Secretary Generals of PBS, Upko and PBRS - all Momogun-based political parties in BN - prior to GE13 often met for coffee or 'kupi-kupi' to discuss their common challenges. especially on the issue of Momogun unity and it was during such informal meeting that the Tataba unity initiative was conceived."We divided the task of implementing the Tataba CSR Unity Project among ourselves whereby PBS was in charge of the distribution of high yielding timber clone rubber seedlings to Momogun families, Upko was assigned to distribute church assistance and PBRS the Tataba Unity Sports Carnivals," he said.
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The Tataba merger initiative culminated in the meeting of the Presidents of the three Momogun-based political parties during the launching of the church assistance attended by the Council of Churches and later during the Tataba Unity Gathering at Hongkod Koisaan (KDCA Building) in 2013 attended by 5000 people where the Presidents of the three Momogun-based political parties reiterated their commitment for close cooperation and work towards Momogun unity.He said as early as 2002 Dompok volunteered to disband Upko to allow for Upko and PBS merger to establish Momogun power block within BN, but a group of PBS leaders put up ludicrous and unreasonable conditions to sabotage the unity efforts even though then PBS President Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan approved the unity plan," he said."It was against this background that I decided to fight Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili for the post of PBS Deputy President to bring back sense to an otherwise arrogant but selfish and unreasonable leadership.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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"I was fully aware of the impossible situation to fight against a serving federal minister but I was determined to make a political statement by challenging the sheer arrogance of the PBS leadership hostile to Momogun unity."I lost the contest for obvious reasons but I managed to secure 30 per cent of the delegates mostly Momogun delegates who voted with their conscience, not their pockets," Henrynus said.