Yong’s ‘principle’ of splitting votes

Romancing the Barisan National may soon end SAPP president Yong Teck Lee's love affair with the Sabah opposition front.

COMMENT

The political signal coming from Sabah Progressive Peoples Party’s (SAPP) president Yong Teck Lee in the last few months indicates that he is trying to sail on two boats – Barisan National and Pakatan Rakyat – at the same time.

His shifting statements to keep both the major political parties in good humour may end with a backlash.

At the same time, the Pakatan Rakyat camp, specially DAP, feels that Yong is not dependable and his track record for the last couple of years shows that he is more committed to splitting the opposition votes.

It is a known fact that despite poor governance, Yong ruled this politically vibrant state for two years but many say he doubled the period by “working” 24 hours a day allegedly skimming the state.

Yong’s new political strategy is to oppose Pakatan. He is hinting that he would also ditch Jeffrey Kitingan’s State Reform Party (STAR) and hijack Jeffery’s old battle cry of “Sabah For Sabahans” , “Sabah Rights” and now “Ini Kali Lah” and keep his minority flock in his pocket.

In the meantime, Yong is trying his best to sweep the issues of maladministration and corruption during his time as chief minister under the carpet with the help of the captive media.

Being a shrewd, seasoned politician, Yong knows his limitations. He also knows the art of handling the levers of the power equations.

He has hardly missed any occasion to profess his loyalty to PKR, and Anwar Ibrahim in particular. Recently, he took the opportunity to welcome Anwar in the Kota Kinabalu International Airport and this says a lot.

He is not a part of Pakatan and only supports it from the outside. He has also denounced Sabah DAP strongly.

The question is whether or not Yong is driving a wedge between Anwar and Sabah DAP.

Triangular game

Given the current political situation, Yong doesn’t have any other alternative but to support PKR in Sabah.

The by-election in Batu Sapi proved that PKR’s Ansari Abdullah fared better than him in the parliamentary by-election. (BN went on to win the seat.)

Yong can’t think of joining Pakatan because of Sabah DAP whereas Jeffrey is free to move in any direction.

The challenge for the opposition allies now is how to strike an agreement among themselves so that there will be only one-to-one fights with the BN.

It will not be easy because SAPP and DAP are eyeing the same seats and Jeffrey is unlikely to give way to PKR on choice seats.

If recent gatherings in the meetings of SAPP is any indication, then Yong is admant to go for a majority of the 60 state seats in the looming general election on what he terms as “the principle of Sabah autonomy”.

And the “principle” is all about splitting the opposition votes and helping BN win big.

The gainer of this triangular game may be Shafie Apdal, a good friend of Yong, who is waiting and watching in the wings to take over as chief minister from Musa Aman.

In such a situation, both Yong and Jeffrey are nothing more than pawns in a game played by the BN and Pakatan – both “parti-parti Malaya”.

Selvaraja Somiah is a geologist and freelance writer.