Pairin: Dr M bullied PBS

The Daily Express's front page Tuesday (Oct 21)

Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) president Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin Kitingan said the Umno-led Barisan Nasional under Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad bullied his party when the latter was Prime Minister.

Speaking to Daily Express (correction: Speaking to the Press) in Kota Kinabalu Monday, the Sabah Deputy Chief Minister said,," If I were to look back, during the time of Dr Mahathir, of course we (PBS) were bullied."

Pairin, who was a Chief Minister during the PBS State Government, said over the years, they had been a number of cases where people had raised the issues of a BN component bullying its partners.

"However, the most important is to sit down and discuss the issue in a roundtable meeting in the spirit of BN," he said.

Meanwhile, Pairin said MCA was only thinking of itself when it proposed two deputy chairman posts in BN with one of them filled by an MCA leader. He said other parties might demand similar recognition should the extra BN deputy chairman post be created.

"If an extra post is created, why not another one, what about Sabah and Sarawak," Pairin said.