Sabahans do not like big guns, Yong tells BN, Pakatan

BATU SAPI, Oct 31 — Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) candidate Datuk Yong Teck Lee scoffed at his rivals today for banking on their top leaders to win Batu Sapi, claiming that Sabahans did not enjoy having the “big guns tell them what to do”.

A number of top leaders from deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to Pakatan Rakyat (PR) de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim have made lightning visits ahead of the November 4 parliamentary by-election.

“They think they will get some fire but I think it will backfire. I think the local people would not like to see the big guns coming here, telling them what to do,” the SAPP president told a press conference today.

The former chief minister pointed to the presence of both Barisan Nasional (BN) and PR top leaders in the Batu Sapi campaign over the past few days and claimed they had come with a “patronising attitude”.

“They only come now in the by-election. They just come with a patronising attitude.

“As you can see our Chinese community leaders here, everyday they receive invitations for food – first Muhyiddin Yassin, then Hishammuddin Hussein, Dr Chua Soi Lek, Liow Tiong Lai, Datuk Wee Ka Sion, Datuk Seri Musa Aman, then even the LDP and Gerakan,” he said, referring to the BN leaders.

Yong claimed the political bigwigs did not have enough quorum to fill up their dinner functions and hence were forced to invite as many people as possible.

“So the people say — they invite, we go la. But the sincerity is not there,” he said.

Yong added that he encouraged the community leaders to attend the dinners and assured them that once he won the Batu Sapi seat, he would not abandon them like the others.

“I will come to see them, not before the elections when we are asking for votes. These BN, Pakatan people, they come here but their sincerity is doubtful,” he said.

PR leaders like DAP’s Lim Kit Siang, Anwar and Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim have also appeared on a stump for PKR over the weekend to help the party in the by-election race.

“I think PR knows that they are way behind in number three. One of their efforts to catch up is by attacking us,” Yong said.

He also claimed that both BN and PR were now combined in their forces to attack the SAPP as they were aware that the Sabah-based party was gaining ground in Batu Sapi.

“BN, I think up to yesterday, they were confident. But during Muhyiddin’s dinner when people walked out during his speech and he received a lukewarm response in the villages and his Umno machinery is not working that well... I think for the first time in this campaign, BN realises that they might lose the seat,” the lawyer-by-training said.

Yong, who has been using his Sabah-for-Sabahan concept as his platform for the polls, claimed that both BN and PR wanted to “nationalise” Sabah.

“But we will overcome this,” he said.

Yong is facing both BN and PKR in the race namely, BN’s Datin Linda Tsen Thau Lin and PKR’s Ansari Abdullah. -Malaysian Insider