Sabah Democratic Party The party started as
Sabah Democratic Party (
Parti Demokratik Sabah or PDS) which was founded by
Bernard Giluk Dompok and other detractors who split from
United Sabah Party (
Parti Bersatu Sabah or PBS) soon after the
Sabah state election in March 1994 to join the
Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. PBS had earlier won a majority in the
Sabah State Legislative Assembly then but with the two breakaway factions setting their own spliter new parties of PDS by Dompok and another
United Sabah People's Party (
Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah or PBRS) by
Joseph Kurup had caused the crumble of PBS new Sabah government and allowed BN to form the government instead. Part of the enticement offered by BN to the defectors was the promise of a rotating
Chief Ministers of Sabah post, which Dompok held from 1998 to 1999. The defection from PBS however damaged the party at the
1995 federal election, in which it won no seats.
United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation PDS was renamed as United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (UPKO) or
Pertubuhan Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Bersatu on 8 August 1999, taking the same acronym of the now defunct original
United Pasokmomogun Kadazan Organisation, which was formed and dissolved in the 1960s by
Fuad Stephens. The party won three federal seats at the
1999 election, and four at the
2004 as well as
2008 polls. In 2009, UPKO opened four divisions in
Perak, seeking a foothold among local
Orang Asli indigenous people. UPKO was one of the component parties in the
Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition which ruled Malaysia until 2018. The party's core Sabahan indigenous constituency includes many
Christians, while BN is, on a national scale, dominated by the
United Malays National Organisation, an overtly
Muslim-
Malay party. While a member of the BN federal government, UPKO often spoke out about government policies affecting Christians. In 2013, the party's president
Bernard Dompok distanced himself from Prime Minister
Najib Razak on the contentious question of the use by Malaysian Christians of the word "
Allah" to describe God. Najib had supported a government appeal to the High Court seeking to outlaw the word's use by a Christian newspaper; Dompok criticised the appeal and defended the right of Christians, especially indigenous Malaysians, to use the word. UPKO also agitated, often against the national government of which it was a part, for tougher measures against illegal immigration in Sabah. In February 2012, UPKO succeeded in forcing the establishment of the
Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrants in Sabah. In the same year one of the party's federal parliamentarians,
Wilfred Bumburing, quit UPKO and joined the opposition PKR in protest at what he considered to be government inaction on illegal immigration. UPKO was an advocate for the repeal of the
Internal Security Act, which for over 50 years permitted detention without charge in certain circumstances. The law was repealed in 2011. In the
2018 general election, the party won only one federal seat and five state assembly seats. Following this, the party's acting president Madius Tangau announced that UPKO with five of their party state assembly seats members had left BN to form a coalition government with the
Sabah Heritage Party, alongside PKR, DAP and Amanah became a partner party for the
Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition instead. File:United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation Logo.svg|Logo as the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation
United Progressive People of Kinabalu Organisation The party was re-branded again as United Progressive People of Kinabalu Organisation or
Pertubuhan Kinabalu Progresif Bersatu while retaining its existing UPKO acronym on 23 November 2019. There is also a slight change in UPKO's logo with the inclusion of a new colour, red while the Mount Kinabalu image remains. == Organisational Structure ==