SAPP steps up undeclared 'press release' war

The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) shows no let-up in its undeclared war of “press releases” to swamp the local media with items structured as “news stories”. The party, a 1994 breakaway from Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), left the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) in a huff in late 2008.

SAPP’s latest release, apparently translated directly from Chinese to English, is a case in point in a long-running war in the local media.

PBS deputy president Dr Yee Moh Chai, a double first in medicine and law, continues to draw SAPP’s ire. This time he has apparently riled the opposition party for explaining to his alma mater, the Cardiff Law School, that his datukship is equivalent to the British knighthood carrying the title “Sir”. This explanation was allegedly carried in the law school’swebsite.

According to SAPP treasurer-general Wong Yit Ming’s “press release”, the following question and answer dating back to 2005 was extracted from the Cardiff Law School website:

Question: Have your received any awards, appointments or had any publications?

Answer (Yee): I was awarded ‘Young Malaysian of the Year’ in 1994 and a datukship in 2004 from the State government of sabah, carrying the title of ‘datuk’ (the equivalent of a knighthood).

Yee, also the State Resource Development and Information Technology Minister, explained briefly that he was not responsible for what the British website included by way of explanation in brackets. Western reporters, it is noted, generally explain the datukship to their readers as equivalent to the British knighthood.

Call for inquiry panel

Wong is not satisfied with the same response that he has received from Yee and thinks that the PBS leader has been purposely misleading the general public in Malaysia and Britain since 2005 by deliberately not taking any action to “correct the mistake” in the website.

He wants Yee to apologise to Sabah Yang di-Pertua Negri for comparing himself to a British knight. “Also, by comparing his datukship with the British knighthood without referring to the state government – in order to have his British friends call him Sir – he could have broken the rule of conduct as a lawyer and state minister,” said Wong. “He’s not going to get away by blaming the website editors.”

He is also urging the Sabah Law Association (SLA) to set up an inquiry panel to investigate whether “ Yee is telling the truth or otherwise”.. If Yee lies to the public, says Wong, “the SLA should take stern action against him as a member to protect the image of lawyers in the state and the country”.

SLA president John Sikayun, a datuk himself, said that he “wasn’t sure” on the issues raised by SAPP. However, SLA is willing to look into it if the party lodges an official complaint against Yee.

“We cannot look into any complaint unless it is in black and white,” said Sikayun.

PBS leaders, all with various awards from the state and the Yang diPertuan Agong, declined to be drawn into the fray since they “didn’t want SAPP to fire another press release missile” at them tomorrow “and give them unwanted publicity”.

The SAPP strategy sees one leader firing off a press release to provoke a response from the targets marked for political humiliation in the media. This is followed by all other SAPP leaders firing off their own press releases on the same issue.

The party generally avoids direct off-the-cuff interviews with the press and press conferences are rare. They prefer the “press release” approach.

Old grievances

One PBS leader described SAPP as “a mosquito party which has to create controversies all the time to get noticed by the voters. They are getting desperate”.

“They have been picking on Yee for weeks now,” he said. “They hope this will turn the Chinese voters against him. The Chinese will go where the PBS native votes are going.”

Another recalled that he had often come across the datukship explained in English language publication overseas as equivalent to a British knighthood, but isn’t sure of the accuracy of such a description.

He referred to a FaceBook site on Datuk Shake, the popular French singer previously from Malaysia, which explains his datukship as equivalent to the British Sir or Lord.

Many Sabahans, like most other Malaysians, are not sure whether a datukship is equivalent to a British knighthood. Some think that there are too many datuks in the country compared with the number of British knights in the entire Commonwealth.

Yee, in the latest round, has been at the receiving end from SAPP leaders for weeks now. This followed a government-linked company taking pot shots at party chief Yong Teck Lee for his poor track record on investment decisions taken during his two year tenure (1996-1998) as chief minister.

Blue chip shares were also allegedly exchanged for shares whose actual worth was reportedly disputed by the state Finance Ministry. Yee subsequently lodged a report with the then Anti-Corruption Agency on the matter.

Yee and Yong have been going hammer and tongs at each other in the local media from time to time whenever the latter saw an opportunity to dredge up old grievances.

Yee keeps his rebuttals to the minimum. This has prompted former SAPP Gaya MP, Philip Yong Chiew Lip, to say last week that “Yee’s silence on many issues is costing his constituents”.

courtesy of FMT