United Sabah Party

The United Sabah Party or formerly known as United Sabah Movement (Malay: Parti Bersatu Sabah or formerly Gerakan Sabah Bersatu; abbrev: PBS) is a political party of Sabah. PBS had been recognized by the people of Sabah as historical local party since 1985. The PBS was founded by Joseph Pairin Kitingan in 1985 and it is Sabah's oldest local party. PBS is also the one of eight major component parties that formed the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), a Sabah-based official political coalition since 2022.

Since 2022, the PBS acts as an allied partner, providing confidence and supply to the ruling federal Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition as part of GRS. PBS is a major component of the Sabah-based Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) state governing alliance since 2022.

History

PBS was registered as a political party on 5 March 1985. Its founding President is Joseph Pairin Kitingan who had broken away from the ruling Parti Bersatu Rakyat Jelata Sabah (BERJAYA) because of his differences with the Chief Minister of Sabah and party president, Harris Salleh in whose state cabinet Pairin served before the break-up. BERJAYA itself had ousted the previous state government of United Sabah National Organisation (USNO) to govern Sabah for 8 years from 1976 to 1985.

PBS later formed the state government after winning the May 1985 state elections. Following the 1986 Sabah riots after winning the 1986 state election, PBS joined the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and governed Sabah from 1985 to 1994. However, on the eve of the July 1990 state elections, PBS pulled out of the BN to join the Gagasan Rakyat (GR) coalition and won the state election for a third time. It also won the 1994 state elections by a narrow margin. However, numerous defections occurred as many PBS representatives switched allegiance to the then opposition BN coalition although PBS won a third term in the elections and was able to form a short-lived state administration that lasted for a week as a result of the defections which led to Pairin's resignation as Chief Minister. PBS subsequently rejoined the BN coalition in 2002, ending any form of opposition as BN fully occupied the state legislature and returning Sabah to the rule of the BN coalition that also holds the federal parliament.

Following the fall of both federal and state BN governments in the 2018 general election (GE14), PBS left the coalition and formed a new Sabah-based informal coalition of parties known as the United Alliance (Sabah) or Gabungan Bersatu (Sabah) and also the succeeding United Sabah Alliance or Gabungan Sabah Bersatu. During the 2020–21 Malaysian political crisis later, PBS has become allied partner providing confidence and supply to the new ruling federal government Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition set-up by prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin. On 12 September 2020, PBS joined the Hajiji Noor re-formed Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) or Sabah People's Alliance just before the 2020 Sabah state election which was won eventually by the GRS to form the state government. As a result, PBS has signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of both the PN and GRS pacts separately. However, PBS expressed that they will stick to their own logo and flag until the actual local coalition is established under the RoS in the next and subsequent elections.

In 2022, Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) is the only coalition that has been successfully registered under the Registrar of Societies (RoS) making PBS interested in using the coalition's logo and becoming part of the coalition's component. Since 2023, PBS officially become the major component of Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and one of the founding parties of the coalition.

Ideology and support base

Although it is mainly seen as an ethnically-based Kadazan-Dusun political party, PBS calls itself a "Malaysian multi-racial political party". Members are mostly of Kadazan-Dusun (from both the Dusunic plus Paitanic ethnolinguistic groups) and Murut (including the Lundayeh subgroup) ethnic descent, though the second and third largest ethnic membership are mostly Muslim Bumiputeras, mostly ethnic local Sabahan based ethnic Malay race (Bruneian Malays and Cocos Malays), and also from the Bajau community of peoples (the second-largest ethnic Bumiputera in the state including the Iranun subgroup and some Suluk together with the Chinese, alongside those of mixed-race or Sino-Native subgroup of the Chinese minority). Its declared political mission is to strive to safeguard Sabah's autonomy and state rights, promoting democratic principles, economic advancement, human rights and a fair justice system. It also seeks preserving the traditional culture of each race in Sabah and freedom of religion in Malaysia.

Among the most vocal issues voiced by the party were the issue of illegal immigrants along with 'ghost voters' in Sabah, the issue of the IC Project in East Malaysia, unbalanced development and the 20 points of the Malaysian Agreement 1963 for Sabah's entry into Malaysia.

Since 1994 major defections from PBS, several political parties with similar ideologies have emerged. The closest one is the STAR Party, founded by Datuk Dr. Jeffrey G. Kitingan, the younger brother of the former president of PBS, Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Joseph Pairin Kitingan. Other similar parties include Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah.