The Three Monkeys:Will BN Lose Again ?

Hantu Laut

In my previous two articles I mentioned that Joseph Kurup of PBRS/BN lost his uncontested MP seat of Pensiangan, nullified by the court in an election petition brought against him and that the BN would lose the seat if he is fielded again.

The election petition was brought against him by PKR's candidate Danny Anthony Andipai .It was found that the returning officer had acted unfairly towards Kurup's opponent by rejecting his papers when Kurup objected during objection time, quoting late submission of the papers as the reason for rejection.The judge ruled that the rejection was wrong and nullified the Pensiangan parliamentary seat.

Kurup was the Assemblyman for Sook from 1985 to 2008 except for the period 1999 to 2004 and had been Minister,Finance Minister and Deputy Chief Minister under both the PBS government and later under his own party PBRS/a component of the BN.

The Pensiangan parliamentary seat was previously held by Bernard Maraat also of PBRS who won the seat on a thin majority of 608 against Matin Tomy, an independent candidate.In the March 2008 General Elections, in fear of losing the seat and thinking it would be safer to move to other constituency Kurup abandoned his state seat of Sook and moved to Pensiangan.He booted out his colleague the incumbent Bernard Maraat and as President of the party refused to let him contest the seat.He took it for himself.

Kurup together with Bernard Dompok and Yong Teck Lee abandoned PBS soon after the 1994 state elections to form their own respective party and joined the BN to topple the PBS government.The plot was engineered by Anwar Ibrahim and assisted by the trio.

Yong had shown his true colour and had left the BN using the weak leadership of Badawi as the excuse and his love for Sabah as the reason.He misread the situation, thinking Anwar would be successful in taking over the government then.Dompok is rumbling all the times about how much he loves Sabah and wanted the best for Sabahans and objected to Petronas gas terminal and Pak Lah lack of concern for Sabah.He was given the reclamation work for the project.See, sometimes, threat does pay off. Kurup would surely abandon the BN if he is not chosen to stand in Pensiangan and good chance BN will succumb to his threat and let him contest Pensiangan.

One must admire this minute platform shoe-man, he has managed to stay in politics all this while.Pensiangan could be his death throes.

Following my comment of no place for Kurup in Pensiangan in the by-election, others have came out to express similar apprehension.Joseph Pairin has his doubt about Kurup here.Today, PBS Secretary-General Radin Malleh cautioned Kurup against his overconfidence of winning Pensiangan.He requests Kurup to do some soul searching here.

With Kurup the BN would surely lose.With a more acceptable candidate the BN would have a better chance of a close fight.