Joseph Pairin Kitingan

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7th Chief Minister of Sabah
Joseph Pairin Kitingan
In office 1985 – 1994
Preceded by	Harris Salleh
Succeeded by	Tun Sakaran Dandai

Political party	BERJAYA, Parti Bersatu Sabah
Religion	Christian-Catholic

Datuk Seri Panglima Joseph Pairin Kitingan (born August 17, 1940) is a Malaysian politician and was the sixth Chief Minister of Sabah, a state in Malaysia. He held the post from April 1985 to March 1994. Currently, he is the Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Rural Development of Sabah and has held the post since March 2004.

Pairin was born in Papar. He attended La Salle Secondary School, an all-boy school located in Kota Kinabalu.^[1] He won a Colombo Plan scholarship and went on to read law at the University of Adelaide and upon completing his study, he came back to Sabah to work as a State Counsel with the Sabah Legal Department and was later made Deputy Public Prosecutor. Subsequently, he practised law with a local legal firm.

His brother Jeffrey Kitingan is also a politician, although with another political party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat.

1 Political career
2 Leadership
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Political career

Pairin began his active political career in 1975. He was elected a Member of the Sabah Legislative Assembly for the Tambunan electorate in 1976 under the BERJAYA party ticket, a party which was led by Harris Salleh (Chief Minister 1976-1985) and was appointed as a minister in the cabinet of the ruling party. Tambunan has become his stronghold ever since and to this day, no political opponent has ever managed to make any significant dent in the Tambunan people's support for him.^{[citation needed]}

Over time, Pairin became disillusioned with the party's leadership and opposed some of the party's policies. He felt that the party had deviated from its original struggle. He however remained firm with the party and consequently, he was forced to leave the ruling party in 1984.^[2]

[edit] Leadership

In December 1984, he stood alone as an independent candidate against the ruling party to defend his seat in the Tambunan by-election. He had to contend with unfair campaign tactics like “vote buying” through on the spot approval of development projects and other private amenities.^{[citation needed]} His leadership in a state within a federation which official religion is Islam was also questioned because of his religion. The ruling party, which was a component of the Barisan Nasional, the Malaysia's ruling coalition, had no qualms in using the sensitive race card issues which is something that is generally shunned in a multi-racial country. Despite overwhelming odds and seemingly lost cause, Pairin won with significant majority.

As punishment to the people of Tambunan for their defiance, the then state government deprived the people of badly needed funds for development and the people had to endure years of hardship because of their stand. However, these treatments only solidified the people's resolve and support for Pairin. The struggle of the people of Tambunan and that of Pairin inspired a new movement of Malaysians in Sabah to push for political change and challenge the abuse of political power, stifling of democratic rights and disrespect of human dignity committed by the BERJAYA government. Pairin and the Tambunan people became the poster boy of this new movement. Soon, other like minded and dissatisfied leaders from other parts of the state, rallied around Pairin. They would become the initial core leaders of a fledgling party with a new vision.

In March 1985, Pairin formed Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) or United Sabah Party. Despite overwhelming adversities, he managed to get the party registered and recognised officially as a political party in the eleventh hour. This enabled him to lead the party against the incumbent state government in the Sabah state election, 1985 in April.

Despite being formed barely 47 days before the election, PBS won, ousting the BERJAYA government.^[3] Pairin was sworn in as the seventh Chief Minister of the state of Sabah. He held the post of Sabah Chief Minister from April 1985 to March 1994, during which he spearheaded his party's triumphant outings in four successive state elections (1985, 1986, 1990 and 1994).

In the 1994 state election, PBS won the election, however shortly after being announced the winner, almost all PBS assemblymen defected to Barisan Nasional. Pairin was not allowed to be sworn in as Chief Minister. Tun Sakaran Dandai of UMNO was then sworn to be the eighth Chief Minister of Sabah.^[4]

Pairin is also the Huguan Siou or paramount leader of the Kadazandusun community and he is also the President of the Kadazan-Dusun Cultural Association (KDCA), the community's principal cultural association.

Political writings on Pairin have described him variously as "fearless, principled, sincere, humble and resilient".^{[citation needed]} These traits have formed the distinguishing attributes of his inspiring and popular leadership.

Pairin is a Catholic and married to Genevieve Lee, a former teacher. They have two sons, Alexander and Daniel, who are both trained lawyers;