PBS Lahad Datu on brink of collapse

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LAHAD DATU: Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) Lahad Datu division is on the brink of collapse following the defection of more than 2,000 party members to Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) recently, and when more than 20 of its party branches announced to boycott its leadership on Tuesday.

The announcement was made through the party left wing leader Dr Hamid Awang who is also PBS Kampung Terusan Branch chairman, together with Kampung Tabanak Branch chairman Haji Madun Buyong, Kampung Timor Branch chairman Abd Kore Bima and Kampung Pancuran Branch chairman Chu Yan Yang.

Claiming they represented the party’s 20 branch leaders, Dr Hamid said they decided to boycott the division’s leadership of Haji Murshid Mohd Rais and his deputy Lo Tian Song when they failed to uphold the party’s spirit after winning the party election not long ago by dropping all those who contested against them in the election, and such partisanship had edged them out of all decision-making roles.

“They even refused to issue any circulars related to party activities to all the branches, keeping all for themselves, and this had resulted in the crack within the division,” he said.

Furthermore, Dr Hamid claimed the last party division election was not fair as the representative from the central committee was in favor of a side instead of being neutral.

“We don’t trust Murshid because he had switched to SAPP when Yong Teck Lee was the Chief Minister, he then switched to Umno when the party later came into power, and now out of the blue this guy appeared and contested in the division election.

“We refuse to have a leader who has no principle to lead us, and we fear that this situation would threaten the division’s future,”

“This is the same with Lo Tian Song, he was appointed as councillor cum Dam Road Development Officer for many years already, but what he had done so far to help the people? Dam Road areas continue to face water and power shortage, deteriorating road condition, while the Chinese community there continue to face many problems, it’s a waste to PBS,”

Dr Hamid was also curious as to where the funds provided by Lahad Datu assemblyman Datuk Datu Haji Nasrun Haji Mansur to upgrade the division’s office in preparing for the coming general election had ended up, as the office remained in its poor situation.

“Because of this we are unhappy, we will forward our letter with the signatures of 20 leaders to the central committee soon to express our dissatisfaction, and in the mean time we will continue to boycott this leadership until the central committee gives us a favorable answer on this matter,”

Early last month, more than 2,000 PBS members and leaders from here and Tungku followed Mohamad Din Ketapi to join PKR during Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s visit here. Mohamad Din was the former Lahad Datu assemblyman during the PBS era, and he is a PBS party ordinary member before joining PKR.