Sabah People's United Front or in Malay ''Parti Bersatu Rakyat Jelata Sabah'' is more commonly known by its abbreviation BERJAYA, was a political party based in the state of

Sabah Sabah () is a state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indonesia to the south. The Federal Territory ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. BERJAYA was formed by former United Sabah National Organisation (USNO) secretary-general Harris Salleh who was later joined by

Fuad Stephens Muhammad Fuad Stephens, (born Donald Aloysius Marmaduke Stephens; 14 September 1920 – 6 June 1976) was a Malaysian politician who served as the 1st and 5th Chief Minister of Sabah from September 1963 to December 1964 and again briefly from A ...

, who served as the first

Chief Minister of Sabah The Ketua Menteri Sabah or Chief Minister of Sabah is the head of government of the Malaysian state of Sabah. Since September 2020, the position has been held by Hajiji Noor from the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU), Perikatan N ...

as well as president of the United Pasokmomogun Kadazan Organisation (UPKO). Stephens became the fifth Chief Minister after BERJAYA won the 1976 state election in April but died in June the same year, being succeeded by Salleh. The party had been a partner of

Barisan Nasional The National Front ( ms, Barisan Nasional; abbrev: BN) is a political coalition of Malaysia that was founded in 1973 as a coalition of centre-right and right-wing political parties. It is also the third largest political coalition with 30 se ...

(BN), the then ruling coalition of Malaysia since its inception on 15 July 1975. BERJAYA governed the state of Sabah for 8 years from 1976 to 1985 after it managed to win the 1976 state election and oust USNO, Fuad was installed as Sabah's fifth Chief Minister, his second time holding the post. He replaced Mohammad Said Keruak of USNO. However, barely 44 days after becoming Chief Minister, Fuad died in a plane crash in

Kota Kinabalu , image_skyline = , image_caption = From top, left to right, bottom:Kota Kinabalu skyline, Wawasan intersection, Tun Mustapha Tower, Kota Kinabalu Coastal Highway, the Kota Kinabalu City Mosque, the Wism ...

on 6 June 1976, known as the

Double Six Tragedy The Double Six Crash, also known as the Double Six Tragedy, was a crash, involving a GAF N-22B Nomad of Sabah Air, which took place on 6 June 1976 at Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, killing several local political leaders. Background Tun Fuad Stephen ...

. Along with him, several other state ministers also perished. Harris then took over his post, becoming the sixth Chief Minister of Sabah. In the 1981 state election, BERJAYA again won, this time with an overwhelming majority. They won 44 out of 48 seats contested. In 1984, party member

Joseph Pairin Kitingan Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Joseph Pairin Kitingan (born 17 August 1940) is a Malaysian politician who served as the 7th Chief Minister of Sabah from April 1985 to March 1994 and Member of Parliament (MP) for Keningau from August 1986 to Ma ...

left the party to form Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS). This newly formed party defeated BERJAYA in the 1985 state election. In the 1990 state election, BERJAYA's support has evidently dwindled as they failed to win a single seat in the election and it was ousted by

United Sabah Party The United Sabah Party ( ms, Parti Bersatu Sabah, abbreviated PBS) is a political party of Sabah. The PBS was founded by Joseph Pairin Kitingan in 1985 and it is Sabah's oldest local party. In August 2020, PBS confirmed that they would be using ...

(PBS). The party then effected a merger with USNO to form the Sabah chapter of the Peninsular-based

United Malays National Organisation The United Malays National Organisation ( Malay: ; Jawi: ; abbreviated UMNO () or less commonly PEKEMBAR), is a nationalist right-wing political party in Malaysia. As the oldest continuous national political party within Malaysia (since its ...

(UMNO). USNO's president Tun

Mustapha Harun Datu Mustapha bin Datu Harun, or Tun Mustapha for short (31 July 1918 – 2 January 1995), was a Malaysian politician who served as the 3rd Chief Minister of Sabah from May 1967 to November 1975 and the 1st Yang di-Pertua Negeri of Sabah from ...

became Sabah UMNO's first president, while Harris became an adviser to the party.

Election results

References

{{Authority control Defunct political parties in Sabah 1976 establishments in Malaysia 1991 disestablishments in Malaysia Political parties established in 1976 Political parties disestablished in 1991

Election results

See also

References