Pairin triggers talk of a major shakeup, will PBS join the Pakatan?

For several years running, Parti Bersatu Sabah president Joseph Pairin Kitingan has been making the same demand without getting into political rhetoric. He always chooses the PBS Annual Assembly late in the year to make the same pitch. This year has been no exception and if anything there has been an added note of urgency in his demand.

And what is it that Pairin wants? He wants a Royal Commission of Inquiry to be set up by 2012 to probe the National Registration Department issuing MyKads to foreigners in Sabah without going through the process of citizenship and without the sanction of the state government. He says the continuing disenfranchisement and marginalization of Sabahans must end once and for all because it is affecting the future of their children and grandchildren. And he is not wrong there.

Pairin thinks that more than sufficient evidence has been gathered against the NRD by various quarters and handed over to the Federal Government. The suspicion has now clearly fallen on a secret unit within the NRD Headquarters in Putrajaya rather than the Sabah chapter. This secret unit has links with the Election Commission, the Home Ministry and the police.

The repercussions of Project M

Pairin is no ordinary leader to sneeze at. He’s Huguansiou (paramount chief) of the Dusuns – the Kadazans (urban Dusuns) included -- and the Muruts. He’s also Deputy Chief Minister, has been a former Chief Minister (1985 to 1994) and is a power to reckon with in the Christian community in Malaysia.

His brother, Jeffrey Kitingan, aspires to lead the 3rd Force in the Malaysian Parliament. But sadly, Jeffrey lacks credibility and is known as the “King of the Frogs” rather than for meaningful ideas or reforms. In fact, few Sabahans will forgive him for quitting PBS at the height of the Project M turmoil used by former premier Mahathir Mohamad to wrest control of Sabah from Pairin, who had then pulled out from the BN. Project M was the birthing place of the current scam to issue Mykads to foreigners in exchange for their voting the BN.

The NRD and the Home Ministry has so far strenuously denied issuing any MyKads to foreigners without going through the proper procedures. However, the NRD is yet to convince the people that there has been no hanky-panky in the issuance of MyKads. Clearly, the locals know better who is local and who isn’t.

If run through even a simple checklist, the foreigners holding MyKads in Sabah will turn up as frauds of the highest order. If they are local-born, as claimed in their Statutory Declarations and late registration birth certificates, even more questions will arise. Invariably, they cannot produce any school documents or evidence of owning ancestral native land or come from a traditional kampung.

To add insult to injury, these foreigners are registered in the electoral rolls and play a significant role in determining the fate of the political parties in the state assembly and Parliament.

The culprits - NRD in Putrajaya, EC and Home Ministry

Most Sabahans blame Mahathir as being the arch villain in this act of high treason and sedition, bestowing instant native status through the backdoor and issuing MyKads to thousands of foreigners in Sabah. Apart from Filipinos and Indonesians, Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis also make up the numbers. Many of these cannot believe their luck at being accepted as Natives and Bumiputera in such a faraway land.

Sabahans are naturally upset at the long-lasting social chaos wrought by Project M. Many of the project's 'beneficiaries' even have the cheek to look down on local Sabahans. They invite violence on a daily basis by continuing to give the two-finger sign to locals, while 'bermaharajalela' or lazing about in Sabah. If proof is needed by Peninsular Malaysians and Sarawakians, one has to just simply fly into Kota Kinabalu and just look around for himself and herself.

The Federal Government – the NRD in Putrajaya in particular and the Home Ministry – must be operating on the basis that Sabahans are fools of the highest order and/or if they are not, there’s very little that they can do about it.

Local Muslims, who have for so long turned a blind eye to foreigners getting their hands on MyKads, are now in the forefront demanding for action. They have belatedly realised that they are hurting the most from the illegal immigrant influx as opportunities which should otherwise go to them are being snapped up by foreigners.

So what RCI?

If the Federal Government stubborn refuses to set up the RCI, as demanded by Sabahans for so long, to probe NRD Putrajaya’s issuance of MyKads to ineligible foreigners, Pairin believes he is one person who can do something about it. And he will, it’s not a question of if but when. This is the information that his supporters are 'leaking' out on his behalf in a bid to remake him a 'hero'. But it may be a little too little, a little too late.

The thing is, so what? What is the good of an RCI. If need be, the federal government under Prime Minister Najib Razak can be expected to cover for Mahathir, who still wields huge power in Umno.

A good example is the RCI on the Teoh Beng Hock death fall, which insists it was suicide although the evidence to the contrary is a mile deep. Here, it is clear Najib was trying to cover up for the MACC officiers involved in what was basically a plot by the Selangor Umno to wrest control of the Pakatan Rakyat state government. But it went awry when the MACC interrogators went too far in forcing a confession from Beng Hock.

A flurry of hints and threats to quit PBS

Pairin has hinted he would quit as PBS president should the RCI not materialize. He reckons that PBS, without him at the helm, will be easy meat for the Pakatan Rakyat opposition coalition. BN, already unsettled by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) and Gerakan, will be thrown completely into turmoil.

Alternatively, PBS might refuse to let Pairin go and instead decide to follow him once more into the opposition. The party has been no stranger to opposition politics, having quit the ruling coalition in 1990 on the eve of General Election. It’s Déjà Vu if a PBS pullout from BN happens on the eve of the 13th General Election over the RCI.

There’s the off-chance that the RCI will materialize next year, probably a promise to set it up after the General Election, but not with the aim that Sabahans have in mind. The Terms of Reference for the RCI, if it ever materializes, is likely to confine it to suggesting ways how the NRD in Sabah can improve its procedures and processes.

The joker in the pack is not the Sabah NRD but that in Putrajaya which has been feverishly working overtime handing out MyKads to foreigners in Sabah. So, the question of an RCI probing the Sabah NRD should not arise. That would be like barking up the wrong tree.

If and when the opposition alliance comes to power, with or without PBS on board, those in the secret unit at the NRD Putrajaya, Mahathir and the Election Commission, among others, will finally see their day in court.

Diminished and fighting for his own interests?

The question is, how sincere is Pairin. And this question extends not so much to his ability to actually step on board the Pakatn, but to his own people. With snap general elections due soon, Pairin himself faces being phased for keeping quiet all these years.

Is this latest another drama to convince the Sabahans that he is serious and for the umpteenth time? If he was serious, he would have openly joined the Pakatan. But currently, it looks like he is making use of the coalition led by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim to boost his own bargaining power.

This is indeed a sad reflection of how diminished Pairin's pull over his own people has become. Huguansiou he may be in name, but many Sabahans have long ago given up on him and his brother.

Malaysia Chronicle