Pix courtesy of www.etawau.com-Murut Youth in traditional costume

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So they said, they patched up. No more bickering between PBS and BPRS after all they are in the same house - BN. Thank you.

PBS President Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin Kitingan and the PBRS President Tan Sri Joseph Kurup decided to ‘sign the truce’ between them last Tuesday, following the intervention of Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman, held in Keningau.

For several weeks the two leaders were throwing mud at each other on the issue of which political party or rather who is the most politically right person to be fielded as candidate to face opposition in Pensiangan by-election.

The intervention by Musa Aman was not in any way involved in discussing who and from what party will the candidate be chosen from to represent BN.

While the decision to whether there will be a by-election won’t be known until the Court of Appeal decides on February 12th and 13th.

PBS Deputy President, Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili said, PBS is not in position to ask for the seat because it was originally belong to PBRS, but nonetheless if given a chance PBS has strong support in Pensiangan. Indirectly, he was saying he has a candidate, a Murut, a former MP of Pensiangan -Bennerd Maraat from PBS; ironically Maraat was a former Deputy President of PBRS.

As of today, if a candidate is from BPRS to represent BN it must be none other than the Party President Tan Sri Joseph Kurup, whose seat was nullified, which led to the likely of by-election.

Many people praised Court’s decision because they viewed Kurup’s winning was by dubious means.

Pensiangan is situated deep in the interior of Sabah about 200 kilometers from Kota Kinabalu and about 20 kilometers from Sabah and Kalimantan border.

It has about 19,000 voters predominantly of Murut origin-but within it, they have about seven sub-Muruts found through out Sabah.

The usual argument therefore when come to selecting candidate here as it has always been, a person isn’t just the right person but he or she must be of Murut by origin.

PBRS likewise is predominantly Murut based political party but PBS too have Murut followers, that is why selecting a candidate isn’t as easy as plucking coffee beans here. The prerequisite of course the voters demand he or she must be Murut.

While from the opposition side two names floating around, one is Danny Andipai from PKR whose candidacy was disqualified against Kurup by the retaining officer in the last General Election in Pensiangan.

Another, the Vice- President of PKR, Dr Jeffery Kitingan, he is not a Murut, but would Pensiangan voters still thick on the issue of race when comes to Jeffery, after all, Sook is the other half of Pensiangan comprised of mostly Dusun.

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