In a WhatsApp message to FMT, Jahid said the party will remain with the coalition and there is no truth to the rumour being spread on social media as well as among PBS members on the ground.
The rumour began immediately after Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said on Sunday that PBS should consider “lending” the Matunggong state seat to Umno to help BN capture the seat from the opposition.
Not only that, in the same speech, Zahid was deemed to have insulted PBS and its acting president Maximus Ongkili after he said the local party had been losing its support base, judging by the decreasing majority in each of the seats it contested in the last election.
His proposal was immediately shot down by Ongkili in a Facebook post, saying that the seat had always been a PBS seat and that Zahid’s suggestion was unacceptable.
If PBS were to leave BN, it would be a repeat of the time when the party, led by its president and founder Joseph Pairin Kitingan, left BN on the eve of the 1990 state election.
The party rejoined BN in 2002.
However, Jahid said there was no chance of such an incident repeating itself this time around.
“PBS will continue to hold on to the spirit of brotherhood within BN and we are confident all BN component parties believe in this, too.
“At the same time, PBS will continue to strengthen BN, believing that each member should respect the others,” he said.
He confirmed the party had called for a supreme council meeting today but did not divulge whether the issue of Matunggong or the question of PBS’ position in the BN will be discussed at the meeting or not.
Yesterday, Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman had given an assurance that the proposal to let an Umno candidate stand in Matunggong in GE14 would not be carried out.
He said BN would continue to field a candidate from PBS in the seat.
“The issue related to the ‘lending’ of the seat was merely a suggestion by certain parties, just like what has happened in other areas before.”