Parti Bersatu Sabah today joined Sabah Progressive Party to call for an end to the rotation of Chief Minister's post among parties in the state ruling coalition every two years, saying that the short tenure is causing "havoc, instability and discontinuity in policy".

PBS deputy president Dr Maximus J O­ngkili said the party has been consistent with this view throughout the days when it was in the opposition since 1990 and now in the Barisan Nasional again.

"We raise this issue all the time in the BN but we will abide by whatever decision made by the leadership," he said.

He said the present rotation system is problematic because by the time a new chief minister learns to do his job, it would have taken at least o­ne year and what is left is o­nly another year for development.

He added the call to end the rotation is not to enable PBS to hold the chief minister's post again.

Slim chance for PBS

"The political landscape has changed a lot since 10 years ago. It is now Umno who holds the largest number of seats in the Sabah legislative assembly and going by that, their leader should be chief minister.

"The chances for PBS to hold the post again are slim. We have no qualms about Umno holding the post, as long as the person is capable and sincere to help all Sabahans regardless of their race," he said.

PBS, formed in 1985, had won all the Sabah elections and formed the state government until 1994. In the state polls that year, the party initially won 25 out of 48 seats but was forced out of power when a majority of PBS leaders defected to Umno.

Four years before that, in 1990, PBS left BN and formed a pact with the opposition o­n the eve of the national election. The party won 17 out of 48 seats in 1999 and had early last year rejoined the BN.

When asked, O­ngkili, who is member of Parliament for Bandau, said the party however will not reject the chief minister's post if offered two years from now under the present rotation cycle.

"We are part of the BN family and we must make the system work if it is not abolished," he said.

He said if the BN leadership thinks it is inappropriate to end the rotation now, they could perhaps consider an alternative by extending each group's turn to five years.

Started in 1994

Umno president Dr Mahathir Mohamad introduced the rotation system after the state election in 1994, promising that representatives from the three largest ethnic groups - Malay, Chinese and Kadazandusun - will take turn to hold the chief minister's post every two years under a "1:1:1" formula.

However, this was changed to "2:1:1" later to give Umno o­ne term more than the other two groups to reflect its larger portion of legislative seats.

Following this formula., the next chief minister will be from Umno when Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) Chong Kah Kiat's term expires o­n March 27.

Chong, the sixth chief minister since the rotation began, replaced Umno's Osu Sukam who kicked-start the second rotation cycle. The cycle will end after another Umno leader and a Kadazandusun leader complete their tenures.

Early this week, SAPP president Yong Teck Lee, former chief minister between 1996 and 1998, called for an end to the rotation o­nce the present cycle is completed.

When contacted, Yong, a former PBS leader, said he would not elaborate o­n the reasons for his statement until he had discussed it with BN leaders.

But he had said in recent months in East Malaysia newspapers that Sabah should emulate its neighbour Sarawak which has the head of the largest party as the chief minister while the two deputy posts are given to leaders of two largest ethinic groups - Iban and Chinese.

An observer who requested anonymity said he believed Yong is trying to secure a long-term post, albeit the No 2, for SAPP after his party was sidelined during the last appointment of chief minister.

The post was given by Mahathir to Chong in 2001, instead of SAPP deputy president Tham Nyip Shen, despite that SAPP has three seats in the state legislative assembly while LDP has o­nly two.

Kadazandusun's turn

Meanwhile, DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang said Yong was "clearly paving the way for Umno hegemony in Sabah politics and putting himself in the good books of Umno leaders" by calling to end the rotation.

"The Umno Sabah definitely wants to hold the chief minister's post without having had to share it with other component parties, Yong is helping them to achieve that," he said.

He also said Mahathir should postpone the appointment of a Umno Sabah leader as the next chief minister until the Kadazandusun community has the chance to finish its two-year term in the first rotation cycle.

In March 1999, Bernard Dompok of the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun-Murut Organization (Upko) who at the time had been the chief minister for o­nly 10 months, lost in the state election.

When the new government was formed, the post was then given to Umno's Osu Sukam who started the second rotation cycle.

Another opposition leader, Keadilan Sabah deputy chairperson Christina Liew said the rotation system had caused much problems in the public administration and should be discontinued.

"It has caused much corruption and waste of public funds. Another important point is that if something goes wrong in the administration, who do you hold accountable for the mistake when they are so many chief ministers going in and out?" she questioned.