KDM parties in BN have lost their vision

Raymond Tombung

Which native party within Barisan Nasional will dare to leave and re-invent itself to meet the challenges of a visionary KDM community?

While most of us still believe that the biggest political party of the Kadazandusun and Muruts (KDM) is Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), it is also now a fact that PBS has lost its vision.


With party supremo, Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who is the community’s Huguan Siou (paramount leader), on the verge of retirement, it is also facing a leadership transition crisis.

And as rightly pointed out in a FMT article by Arnold Puyok, PBS has “overlooked the grooming of its youths” to be future leaders.

Puyok wrote: “That the youths have deserted PBS was pretty much obvious at the party’s 26th AGM in October. Those who attended the AGM were in their 40s, 50s and 60s, confirming rumours that PBS is having a serious problem in keeping its younger members.”

Puyok also pointed out that “Upko appears to have been more successful in enticing the young generation through its programmes such as the ‘Komulakan.’ And unlike the PBS, Upko has young cadre of leaders to take over the party”.

PBS, along with certain other parties, must re-define and spell out its new vision if the old vision is obsolete.

Many PBS members and mid-rank leaders are asking Pairin, “Tan Sri, what will be our issues for the next general election?” and there is no answer.

There is a widespread view that certain KDM Barisan Nasional leaders are there simply to ride the BN wave and seek to sustain their personal positions and pecuniary gains for as long as the wave lasts.

This is not necessarily true, of course, but the perception is real and widespread.

Development, not a catchword

The parties concerned also need to clarify their political objectives in terms of what the KDMs passionately desires for its future.

Let it be restated that the current “development for the people” rationale no longer sells.

The KDMs must not be underestimated. They will no longer swallow the promises of development because “development” (pembangunan) is a word that has become stale and passé “Development or Pembangunan” is no longer a political catchword.

What the KDMs want today is something deeper.

They want the original 1950s’ vision of a new world, a bright future in which they would be the kingmakers of their political life, the architects of their destiny.

They are people whom French artist Henri Matisse alluded to as wanting “to recapture that freshness of vision which is characteristic of extreme youth when all the world is new to it”.

They want a new formula, a new and exciting futuristic structure for the empire of their minds.

They want to be motivated and energised at the realisation of seeing a way out of their dire situation.

Author James Allen imagined this excitement with a shining vision when he wrote, “Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.”

The Borneo Agenda call




But PBS, a leader party representing and safeguarding the KDMs’ political interest, has failed to give them these lofty dreams and make their ideals come true.

By now, PBS should have realised that its loud and repeated cries for Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI), for Borneonisation, or for land rights are miles off the mark when it comes to creating a powerful KDM vision that will excite and draw support.

American diplomat Henry Kissinger once said that “leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision”.

Alchemy means a forceful political chemistry which seethes and stirs the people’s imagination to decisive action. This alchemy is missing in PBS.

Can the KDM parties in BN transcend their present mindsets and make the daring transition into joining the Borneo Agenda bandwagon?

We have yet to hear anyone say that this gem of an idea spawned by the hyperactive neurons of Jeffrey, who is Pairin’s younger brother, is a bad idea.

What we hear is the deafening silence on its unprecedented creativity and political innovation.

Having no other means to revive themselves, it would be prudent for one or two of these parties to consider taking up the window of opportunity for a historic revolution towards a new swing to greatness, not only for the KDMs, but for the peoples of the Borneo states.

All should swing for the ultimate benefit of a greater, more balanced and prosperous Malaysia.

Mother of all visions

With the Borneo Agenda, there will be no more questions about what issues they could use to excite the people. Simply because the Borneo Agenda is already the mother of all visions in the two states.

Even before the next general election, these parties would bathe in the new climate of great anticipation.

Suddenly they will be with fresh parties which will have invoked the high spirit of 1985.

Let’s not be like the republicans whom former US president Jimmy Carter described as “men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future.”

Instead let us listen to Swedish author Dag Hammarskjöld who challenged the man with a confused vision: “Is life so wretched? Isn’t it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddled? You are the one who must grow up.”

Hence, we need to be sharp and acutely sensitive to the beat of silent truth and realities of life.

George Eliot aptly put it when he said: “If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence.”

That roar is coming and if any party doesn’t hear it now, it may drown in the flood of a deadly political thunder that is certain to come!