‘Pakatan looks like BN to Sabahans’

Pakatan’s over demanding on state constituencies reflects the same mentality as Barisan Nasional’s wanting to have a grip over state matters, says SAPP.

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) has accused national opposition front, Pakatan Rakyat, of applying the same ‘divide-and-rule’ tactic applied by the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, which puts their parties and personal interests over the people’s interest.

The party’s secretary-general Richard Yong made the accusation when commenting on the seat-sharing formula unveiled by Pakatan recently.

“When Pakatan offered the 60 divided by 6 formula with Pakatan going for more than 50 state seats in Sabah, the Pakatan formula had nullified their own “Kuching Declaration” and the recently launched DAP “Borneo Agenda”. All these announcements became meaningless to Sabah.

“Pakatan’s over demanding on state constituencies reflects the same mentality as Barisan Nasional’s wanting to have a grip over state matters. Both Pakatan and BN and peninsula based-parties must not try to dilute and neutralise Sabah’s political representation and make Sabahans subject to their mercy.

“I believe the people will not allow the divide-and-rule tactic to be applied again on Sabah and they will know that they have a better choice in supporting a local party like SAPP,” said Yong in a statement issued here.

Yong also critisised the Pakatan leadership for repeatedly blaming SAPP for the seat-sharing deadlock.

“Pakatan’s seat-sharing (negotiations) also hit a snag in some constituencies in the peninsula and generating heated argument in the media,” he noted.

While noting that the opposition coalition’s component parties are arguing for more seats to be allocated to them, he said that SAPP as a local party was bound to ensure Sabah’s autonomy was non-negotiable.

“This is so that we do not have to leave the state’s future into the hand of outside-controlled parties. We have been firm from the very beginning, we will not waver in our stand and must not compromise on Sabah’s rights,” he stressed.

Yong urged voters in Sabah to give their full support to SAPP in the coming general election, to ensure the state is not ruled by peninsula-base parties.

“The coming general election is the best time for Sabah to regain their autonomy and its fair share of political representation in Malaysia so that we can decide what is best for Sabah. We can avoid our Chief Minister being appointed by Kuala Lumpur and we can stop the implementation of policies which is unfavourable to the state,” he said.

“This is not about SAPP but for the larger interest of the state and I believe the people will be unified to put a stop to the long time imbalances and mistreatment by the federal government and regain what is rightly Sabah’s,” he added.

SAPP, he said, would not budge from its stand of defending and safeguarding Sabah’s rights just to please Malaya parties.

SAPP agenda in the coming general election, he said, is an all out push to wrest Sabah back from the federal government and ensure the interests and state and her people are given priority and not allow the federal government to centralise power, he said.