SAPP: No intention to join Pakatan, attacks PKR in Batu Sapi

Yong - SAPP was part of BN

BATU SAPI - Batu Sapi candidate Datuk Yong Teck Lee kicked off the first day of his campaign last night by assuring voters that it was not in his Sabah Progressive Party’s (SAPP) agenda to join Pakatan Rakyat (PR), despite sitting in the opposition bench.

The SAPP president, who recently ran head-on into the PR leadership when he refused to back down from contesting the Batu Sapi federal seat, also took a swipe at PKR’s supposed lack of cohesiveness in its leadership, pointing out that it was fraught with fights and fracas.

The former Sabah chief minister punched further holes in PKR’s Sabah leadership by charging that it was falling apart, in apparent move to capitalise on the party’s fading popularity in the east Malaysian state.

Yong, who was addressing a small crowd at a wooden house in Kampung Karamunting Baru here last night, received loud applause for his assertions.

Fuelled by the reception, he pointed to the clash that had allegedly erupted on Sunday at the Sandakan airport near here between supporters of Ansari Abdullah, the PKR candidate for Batu Sapi, and PKR Sabah chief Ahmad Thamrin Jaini, who was also earlier on the list of likely contestants.

In his animated speech, Yong even appeared to attack PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim himself by questioning if the former deputy prime minister would protect the people of Sabah if PR captured Putrajaya.

“The supporters for the PKR candidate, they were fighting in the airport. They were quarrelling. From this, do you think that Anwar will respect the people’s choice?

“Do you think that if he becomes the prime minister one day, he will respect the people of Sabah? No, this is bad political culture,” he said.

The small group of Kampung Karamunting Baru villagers, who were listening attentively to Yong’s sharp remarks, erupted in shouts of “No!”

Yong, whose SAPP party had left Barisan Nasional six months after Elections 2008 and had indicated its support for the PR pact, revealed that his party had been courted by PR but noted that it was pointless to join what he described as a broken family.

“If the members of this family are always fighting, why should we join them? SAPP can be friends with PR but we do not want to marry them.

“We can ‘kawan’ but jangan ‘kahwin’. It does not make sense also that only after we ‘kahwin’ we can receive their help,” he boomed.

In a clear show of their disapproval of PKR, the villagers continued to cheer loudly at Yong’s words.

Speaking to the media later, Yong explained that it was “not even in SAPP’s agenda” to join the PR pact.

“We can be friends first. We can work together first. But we have not come to the point when we can answer the question of yes or no to us joining PR. It is not even in our agenda to join,” he said.

Yong stressed that SAPP’s union with PR should not be rushed and slammed those that challenged SAPP to rejoin Barisan Nasional (BN) if it was not working with the opposition pact.

“People who suggest that we should rejoin BN, shows that they have no confidence themselves in toppling BN.

“Because if the BN has fallen, then there is no issue of anyone joining them — BN people will join other parties instead,” he said.

He claimed, however, that despite his words, he still believed that Anwar was the only viable PR leader who could take on the post of prime minister in the near future.

“Yes, we see him as a viable prime minister. Say, if something happens to him and he no longer qualifies to stand as a candidate, the opposition will have a big job to find an alternative to Anwar.

“Malaysians will have a big fight trying to find one to replace him. Hence on political basis, Anwar is a viable prime minister because of his history, his background in government,” he said.

Yong nonetheless added that Anwar needed to first hold an actual position in PKR, instead of clinging on to being the party’s de facto leader.

“I do not know if the PR leadership discusses this but they cannot avoid it. If Anwar was to become PM, he has to hold a solid post in a legal entity,” he said.

Yong also told PKR to leave the SAPP alone in its contest for Batu Sapi, reminding the party that its battle was with the BN.

“Leave us alone. I told them, Anwar, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim and others, we can work together but it takes time,” he said.

Yong, along with several other SAPP leaders, visited over six political rallies last night in Karamunting, including Kampung Lupak Meluas, where he spoke extensively of BN’s failure in Sabah.

Sabah, he reminded, was the country’s richest state with its vast natural resources.

“But today we are the poorest. Where has all the money gone? What about the land? How can land go anywhere when it should be there and it should belong to the people of Sabah,” he said.

He acknowledged the SAPP was in an uphill battle to wrest Batu Sapi from BN but insisted that if the party had decided not to contest, it would show that it had surrendered.

“I contested on a BN ticket before. We are quite aware of the immense resources and the unlimited machinery that they have to inflict maximum damage on other parties and its candidates.

“We can see it coming already, but if we do not contest, it means we have surrendered,” he said.

The fight for Batu Sapi is a three-way battle between Yong; BN’s Datin Linda Tsen Thau Lin, the widow of the seat’s late MP Datuk Edmund Chong Ket Wah; and PKR’s Ansari.

All three candidates filed their nomination papers for the November 4 election at the Sandakan Hall here early yesterday morning.

Batu Sapi has 25,582 voters, including 1,535 postal voters. The constituency near Sandakan comprises 59 per cent or 15,099 Muslim Bumiputera; 38 per cent or 9,737 Chinese; 2.69 per cent or 698 non-Muslim Bumiputera; and 0.22 per cent or 57 others.

Chong had won the seat with a 3,708-vote majority over independent Chung On Wing in Elections 2008.
- Malaysian Insider