Who will emerge winner in the fight to be the legally-elected president of Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS)? Will it be Joseph Kurup or Dr Jeffrey Kitingan? Or will there only be losers?

One view, shared by a number of seasoned political commentators in Sabah, is that the loser would likely be Jeffrey.

Jeffrey is the younger brother of former Sabah chief minister and a highly-respected Kadazandusun leader, Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who heads Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) which was recently re-admitted into the ruling Barisan Nasional.

This view is shared not because the judicial process would disfavour the younger Kitingan but because of his well-known flamboyant style in the state's politics.

For few ,especially many of his political opponents within the multi-party coalition, would not forget how he and several elected assemblymen abandoned his own brother's party after PBS performed dismally in elections to join the BN through the now-defunct Akar party led at the time by Mark Koding with Pandikar Amin.

When Koding took sabbatical leave, Jeffrey was appointed acting president of Akar, a move that did not go down well with Pandikar and his supporters, leading to a lot of confusion in the party after a bitter tussle for the leadership.

Jeffrey eventually lost and quit the party and returned to PBS. (Akar was later dissolved and most of its leaders and members joined Umno).

But with PBS in the opposition, Jeffrey didn't stay long in the party and soon left to join PBRS and eventually became its deputy president under Kurup.

This is the party that is now in a big mess with the court likely to be asked to determine who its rightful president is.

While efforts are being made to try and resolve the matter outside the judicial process through the intervention of the top BN leadership both in Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur, the outcome is unclear.

Restless politicians

According to political observers, Jeffrey has been a restless politician for sometime, and the recent developments within the party constitute nothing more than an attempt to make his feelings known.

"Clearly, he has been disappointed at not being offered even an assistant minister post in the cabinet reshuffle following the appointment of Chong Kah Kiat as chief minister," one senior Sabah journalist told malaysiakini .

"He( Jeffrey) along with several other PBRS leaders are aware that with PBS' re-entry into the BN, the former will be completely over-shadowed and may eventually go into political oblivion unless they make some noise or if you like a scene, noted another.

So, according to these observers, the opportunity came during the recent delegates congress where Jeffrey's group made a last-ditch attempt to take control of the party.

However, Jeffrey probably underestimated two things s top leadership wants the dispute resolved amicably so that PBRS will remain intact as one, it also raises expectations of what certain leaders within PBRS want for themselves.

After all, Sabah politics has a colourful history with influential personalities such as the late Donald (later Fuad) Stephens, the late Mustapha Harun and Harris Salleh, all of whom had served as chief minister.

After Harris Salleh's Berjaya Party was ousted by Joseph Pairin's new PBS party, there was a power grab attempt by Mustapha who thought he could cling on as chief minister even without a simple majority, believing Harris' advice that after being sworn in he could always appoint six nominated assemblymen to give him a working majority.

He forgot that only a government elected with a simple majority could nominate the six assemblymen as provided under the state constitution.

Perhaps the feelings of PBRS members are best summed up by the party's five assemblymen who appealed to both Jeffrey and Kurup to compromise and reach a solution.

The had said that 'party members are in the dark as they do not know who is the legally-elected president'.

PBRS knows what it means when there is no accepted leadership within the party. This has also put BN in a dilemma as it would not know who to invite from the party to attend BN meetings.

What would happen if both sides come charging in claiming to represent PBRS at a BN supreme council meeting?

In the end, both factions may find there will be not a single winner and, worse, no party at all if the Registrar of Societies should decide to act based on a judicial decision, assuming that the High Court was to rule that both leaders were not elected according to proper rules.