Dompok: Pairin masterminded PBS pullout

Dominic Legeh

PENAMPANG: A former senior Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) leader has accused former Sabah chief minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan of being the brains behind the pullout from the Barisan Nasional (BN) in 1990.

Bernard Dompok today broke his silence, saying it was his former boss Pairin who started talking about the plan for PBS to pull out from the BN after a shaky relationship with the federal administration of then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.


Dompok, United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun and Murut Organisation (Upko) president,
who was then a high-ranking leader of PBS, recalled that the planning took place during the 1990 general election campaigning period.

“I remember very correctly the day the (PBS) supreme council decided on it. I was already campaigning as a candidate in Penampang constituency… at that time Moyog and Inanam were together part of the Penampang constituency,” Dompok said.

“Then I received a call, on the day of the meeting, from the president (Pairin) and I went and saw him… he started it all by talking about it (pulling out from BN).

“But I think, as I have said before, there are a lot of things that I rather not talk about,” he said.

Dompok, who is also Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister, said Pairin should confirm this account of the events that transpired prior to the pullout.

Dompok was speaking in response to a recent statement by PBS which officially put on record that it was he, Yong Teck Lee (now Sabah Progressive Party leader) and former minister Tham Nyip Shen who forced Pairin’s hand into making that fateful decision to pull out from the ruling BN coalition on the eve of the 1990 general election.

PBS vice-president Radin Malleh made the claim following Mahathir’s revelation in his memoir “A Doctor In The House” that the decision to pull out announced at 8pm at the KK Community Centre here, was what led him to convene an urgent Umno supreme council meeting at midnight the same day in Kuala Lumpur to announce Umno’s expansion to Sabah.

It was a decision that still rankles as it changed Sabah’s political landscape.

Pushed to the wall

Fearing the disclosure would stir up emotions among Sabahans, Radin said Pairin had actually remained loyal to the BN although the federal leadership at that time did not favour the party.

“Although Pairin was already pushed to the wall, he remained loyal to BN until an emergency PBS supreme council meeting held on Oct 15, 1990, where he was forced to agree to pull out from BN by Yong (Teck Lee) and Tham (Nyip Shen), supported by (Bernard) Dompok… these three people were very adamant to get out from BN.”

Dompok today rejected Radin’s claim during a press conference after receiving application forms to join his party from more members of the Kadazandusun community.

“I think I have now been relegated to just a supporter (of the pullout plan), because in some of the earlier statements I seem to have been the promoter… I certainly would like to say a bit more if Pairin can sort of come out and confirm what he feels about it.

“I think if we look back, if the pullout had gone right, history would have been different,” he said, adding that Pairin would have an even more elevated stature if his plan had worked.

“None of us (Yong, Tham and he) would have surfaced as promoters or supporters of this decision… but as it happened, of course, it didn’t turn out that good.

“The decision did not turn out so good. We keep on saying it … and of course nothing would have been heard about Tham, Yong and supporters like me if the decision had turned out right.

“So now my short answer to you is that everybody (actually) had a role… it is important to say (this) today of course (but) let’s move on,” he said.

Asked to comment that the BN-led federal government under Mahathir had punished Sabah because of the pullout, Dompok said people were free to interpret in their own way in making a conclusion.

Earlier, he welcomed Jeoffrey Ekol and Slyvester Sidion, two respected members of the community, saying that Upko now has slightly over 100,000 members.