Prime Minister in Sabah Saturday

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also Barisan Nasional chairman, will be in Kota Kinabalu on Saturday to open the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) 23rd Annual General Assembly which will be held at Magellan Sutera Hotel & Spa.

Registration for delegates had began yesterday and continue today at the party's headquarters in Donggongon, Penampang. The meeting proper will be on Sunday at Hongkod Koisaan, Penampang.

PBS is headed by Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who was Sabah's Chief Minister when the party ruled the State from 1984 to 19940 He is now one of the three Sabah's Deputy Chief Ministers.

Pairin is Tambunan Assemblyman since 1984 and is also the Member of Parliament for Keningau.

History of PBS

Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS, or United Sabah Party) is a political party in Sabah, east Malaysia. It was registered as a political party on March 5, 1985.

The founding president was Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who broke away from the then ruling Parti Berjaya because of his differences with party president Datuk Harris Salleh, the Chief Minister in whose cabinet Pairin served before the break.

Although it is mainly seen as an ethnically-based Kadazan-Dusun political party, PBS calls itself a "Malaysian multi-racial political party".

Its declared political mission is to strive to safeguard Sabah's autonomy and states rights, promote democratic principles, economic advancement, human rights, and justice.

PBS formed the State Government after winning the 1985 state elections and governed Sabah from 1985 to 1994.

PBS joined the Barisan Nasional after winning the May 1986 state election. However, on the eve of the July 1990 state election, PBS pulled out of the 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 Barisan Nasional before PBS were even able to form a new State Government. These politicians were nicknamed katak, which means frogs in Malay.

PBS subsequently rejoined the BN in 2002, ending any form of opposition as BN fully occupied the State legislature and returning Sabah to the rule of the BN that holds the Federal Parliament.