DR YEE CAUGHT RED HANDED LYING AGAIN

KOTA KINABALU : "The disclosure today by the Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister's Department that the KK High Court land will revert to the State Government once the court complex is relocated to Bukit Punai has exposed the lie by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Dr. Yee Moh Chai that there cannot be development on the site simply because the land belongs to the federal government," said SAPP President Datuk Yong Teck Lee.

"The federal government's handing back of the KK High Court land to the State government is correct. It also vindicates our earlier statements that the re-zoning of the land use from government reserve to commercial paves the way for a private commercial development on the vacated land once the High Court has been relocated to Bukit Punai".

There is a Chinese saying that "paper cannot wrap fire", which suitably describes the attempts by Dr. Yee Moh Chai to try to cover up the impending loss of the High Court land as a public facility in the city centre, said Yong. "I repeat my view that Dr. Yee is either sleeping on the job or has a hidden agenda. How can a 18-year wakil rakyat, first an MP, then an assemblyman for 3 terms and a cabinet minister for 9 years, not know about such a major, serious loss of public land in his constituency right under his nose?" asked Yong in a stern statement today. "Dr. Yee should stop being an UMNO stooge and apologise to the people now," said Yong.

"Last month, in denying that there will be commercial development on the site of the High Court, Dr. Yee has stated that the land concerned does not belong to the State government. Honestly, I do not know what Yee has been doing all these many years. He does not even know that the federal land can revert to State Government if the original purpose of the land granted by the State to the federal government has lapsed," said Yong who was Chief Minister for two years from May 1996 to 1998, adding that Dr. Yee had tried to hide the fact that the land has been re-zoned by the City Hall for commercial purposes.

The re-zoning of land use has happened to the 53-acre State Railway Reserve which was turned into a mixed-commercial and residential development by a KL company called SP Setia Bhd. The strange silence from the Minister of Infrastructure and the Chief Minister over the fate of the 293 acres of KK harbour and maritime reserve around the Jesselton Point also raises extreme concern over what the real plans are for the old harbour. These 293-acre of sea front land has also been re-zoned to commercial use. - Sabahkini