‘Don’t be paranoid, Yong’

Political activist Dr Chong Eng Leong wants former chief minister Yong Teck Lee to work with him to rid the electoral rolls of phantom voters.

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah PKR strongman Dr Chong Eng Leong has called for a truce with former Sabah chief minister Yong Teck Lee over the issue of phantom voters on the state electoral rolls.

Chong, a former senator, wants Yong, who is Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president, to work with him to rid the electoral rolls of dubious voters, instead of challenging him to a debate on the issue.

The well-known political activist, who has for years fought a campaign for immigration reform, also urged Yong to stop being paranoid as he had never said Yong was involved in the registration of phantom voters in the electoral rolls.

“Please Yong, don’t be paranoid. No one is saying that you were involved in phantom voters.

“But you know and the public know that when you were in BN (Barisan Nasional), you got their votes.

“When you are not with BN you would not get their votes as proven in Batu Sapi by-election last year.

“Now that you are out of BN, why not we work together to rid the rolls of phantom voters for the sake of Sabah’s sovereignty within Malaysia?

“Would a public debate between you and I help Sabah be rid of phantom voters?

“Sabahans would cherish and remember you well if together we can clean the rolls,” Chong said in a response to Yong’s challenge here on Wednesday.

Yong has accused Chong of doing Umno a favour by diverting attention from Umno towards him (Yong).

He said Chong had harped on the outcome of the election petition on Likas, following detection of phantom voters in the electoral rolls for the Likas constituency in the 1999 general election.

Yong also insinuated that Chong must have close ties with certain Umno leaders as he was privy to information about the phantom voters kept only by Umno.

Nothing to hide

Chong, while admitting that he has many friends in Sabah Umno whose hearts are for Sabah’s rights, however, refuted that he had been silent on the presence of phantom voters in Umno constituencies.

“I hide nothing. My book (Lest We Forget) revealed all I knew then.

“In the book, I had reproduced an article by Harakah (the PAS party newspaper) dated March 16-31 2007, on Sabah Umno task force when Umno first came to Sabah in 1991,” he said.

He reiterated that the job of this task force was to recruit foreigners who were then issued MyKads and then registered as Umno members and placed in the Sabah electoral rolls.

“The target was 30 constituencies (out of 48) to ensure that by the next state election, PBS would be removed from power with the help of these phantom voters.

“It was reported in that Harakah article that the director of this task force was Musa Aman and the deputy was Yahya Hussin.

“All this was revealed by an ex-ISA detainee Jabar Khan, the secretary of the task force,” he said.

He said Yahya, who is Sabah Umno deputy chief, was not telling the truth when he said on Wednesday that Umno had nothing to do with phantom voters in Sabah.

The term “phantom voters” here refers to those foreigners who are allegedly holders of the Project ICs issued fraudulently.