Muslims and new faces: PBS
Friday, 30 January, 2004 (Source: Daily Express)

SANDAKAN: Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) President Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan said his party might consider fielding Muslim candidates and new faces in the coming elections.

Its list of candidates had not been finalised and would be submitted to the central and State Barisan Nasional (BN) leadership soon.

“We have requested for more than the 17 seats we won in the previous election, but we have not yet submitted the list of our proposed candidates,” he said.

Therefore, it was possible that Muslim candidates as well as new faces would be included in the PBS list provided they had gained the trust of the party’s leadership.

Met after officiating the two-day PBS work camp for Labuk and Kuamut at Maliau Hall here, he, however, said gaining the trust was not necessarily the only factor in getting listed.

They must also subscribe to the BN struggle. Many of the PBS previous Muslim leaders turned out to be uncommitted to the PBS cause at the crucial moment, while some critics even charged that the party appointed them for decorative purposes.

Pairin admitted contemplating selecting new faces but said it would be rather hard for him to ignore the interest of incumbents and those with experience.

To a question, he said more people were interested to join the party and that many were glad PBS returned to the BN fold two years ago.

It was also unexpected that many former members have since rejoined PBS, including those who left to join other component parties, he said.

He believed with the return of PBS, it would be hard for BN to be rocked given the lack of a credible opposition in the State.

“The opposition’s strength is no longer the main issue in the election but rather the development and security of the State especially pertaining to illegal immigrants, fake ICs and phantom voters,” he said.

He said the opposition had no more issue to bank on to gain the people’s votes and that with the hard work of each BN component, “we are confident BN will continue to be the rakyat’s choice”.

Among those at the ceremony were Deputy President Ak Aliuddin, Vice President Datuk Michael Asang, MP Ronald Kiandee and PBS Kuamut division chief Ali Latif Taha.