SWITCHING MEMBERSHIP TO ANOTHER COALITION PARTNER IS UNHEALTHY ?

PBRS also against DCM post going to p'sula party

Kota Kinabalu September 08, 2010: Another Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) component, Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS), has made its stand that the Deputy Chief Minister post for the Chinese quota must be allocated to a Sabah-based party.

Its President Tan Sri Joseph Kurup said PBRS would be more than capable of shouldering the responsibility to run the State if given a chance.

"Although PBRS is undisputedly strong in the interior, the Party does have many capable Chinese and SinoKadazandusun leaders who are capable of shouldering responsibilities to run the State if given a chance," said Kurup in a statement after returning overseas, Tuesday.

He said since allocation of the post to a local-based party had been the convention, the State BN should uphold the arrangement.

"We are confident that Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman will exercise his prerogative positively to appoint a new DCM as soon as possible from one of us in the BN," he said.

Kurup, who is also Deputy Natural Resources and Environment Minister, said it was not encouraging, if not unhealthy as far as BN's spirit of camaraderie is concerned, for any BN component party member to switch membership to another in the coalition.

"To do so freely and randomly is tantamount to disrespect and betrayal to their voters who had sent them to the State Assembly and Parliament," he said.

According to him, the trend if left unchecked, would seriously undermine the fellowship of the BN. He was commenting on issue of former Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Vice President, Datuk Peter Pang En Yin who had resigned from his party and is contemplating joining another party within the BN. PM Datuk Seri Najib said Pang had indicated he wanted to join Gerakan.

"PBRS is urging BN leaders to urgently resolve this nagging problem through active and sincere consultation as soon as possible lest disunity sets in," he said.

Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) had also said the DCM post for the Chinese quota must be given to a local-based party while Upko had spoke out against individual members "frogging" within BN.

Meanwhile, PBS President Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan's contention that the Chinese quota DCM post be given to a local-based BN party could be seen as supporting LDP's stand, said LDP Publicity Officer, Albert Kok.

"We must remember that only PBS, LDP, PBRS and Upko are local-based parties while the rest like Umno, MCA, Gerakan and MIC are from Peninsula Malaysia," he said. The Chief Minister post is currently being held by peninsula-based Umno.

Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) had also challenged Pairin who is also a DCM to object to any decision to appoint a peninsula-based party to the DCM post for the Chinese quota.

Going by Pairin's call, the only other Chinese Minister in the present Cabinet is Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai who is also PBS Deputy President and Datuk Raymond Tan who was a former DCM who had to give up the post after he too resigned from his party, SAPP, which ditched the coalition two years ago.

Tan, who is now with Gerakan was retained as a member of the Cabinet, while the post was "given back" to LDP (Peter Pang).