PBS does not want ‘old people’ party tag

KOTA KINABALU: The leadership of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) does not want the party to be seen as a party of old people.

This is why PBS has taken steps to organise a three-day training stint for children of its party members, where they get to study about nation building, the Constitution, the political system, about Barisan Nasional (BN) and PBS, as well as the party's goals and constitution, said PBS acting president Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Maximus Johnity Ongkili during the PBS Media Lunch 2017 yesterday.

He said the party has some 130,000 members all over Sabah.

“Renewal of leadership is important. We don't want the party to be seen as a party of old people,” he told press members.

He also said that unless a party renews its leadership, it runs the risk of being obsolete.

“We are investing a lot of time on this (in renewing our leadership),” he said.

So far, we have already trained about 200 people and about a third of those trained have the capacity to be groomed further.

Ongkili said PBS was unique because it is a multiracial and multicultural party.

“It is stronger than parties with a single race ideology… that is our character which attributes unity in diversity,” he said.

Ongkili said PBS, at 32, is the oldest party in Sabah.

He said they don't want wild hypothesis that with the founding leader and president Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan no longer leading the party, there will be no more PBS.

Meanwhile, when commenting on Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia's questioning the decision of the PBS government not to remove Islam as Sabah's official religion when the party was in power from 1985 and 1994, Ongkili said it was not so easy at the time to change the state constitution because Islam was already Malaysia's official religion.

“To reverse it would have been suicidal because it would not be in line with the Federal Constitution,” he said.

Pandikar, when speaking about Sabah's official religion last Sunday during his talk at a forum on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and the 20 Points on Sunday, questioned why did PBS choose to retain Islam as Sabah's official religion despite having a two-thirds majority in the assembly.

“Pandikar was the speaker of the Sabah assembly (between 1986 and 1988 during the PBS administration) at the time and he knew what happened. He knew it was easier said than done,” said Ongkili.

“We need to ask him why he wanted to mention that specific issue on religion when there are so many other things we can talk about,” he said.

Ongkili