Harris: Yong worked up over Sabah4Sabahans

Shouting Sabah4Sabahans will not help the state get back 40 per cent of the revenue collected by the Federal Government.

KOTA KINABALU: Former Sabah Chief Minister Harris Salleh, taken aback by another former head of government Yong Teck Lee asking him whether he was Sabahan, advised the latter not to get too emotional and worked up over the Sabah4Sabahans theme.

The Sabah4Sabahans campaign was introduced in 1985 by the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) and then Sabah Foundation Director Jeffrey Kitingan. The campaign helped Joseph Pairin Kitingan topple the mighty Berjaya party led by Harris.

“Shouting Sabah4Sabahans at every opportunity, regardless of context, shows that Yong’s thinking is stunted,” said Harris. “I fail to see what the move to get back 40 per cent of the revenue collected by the Federal Government in Sabah has anything to do with all the other issues being raised by Yong and others.”

Harris was referring to Yong’s demand that Harris help get back Labuan and the Federal agencies that the former had handed over to Kuala Lumpur when he was Chief Minister. “It’s not the done thing to ask me whether I am Sabahan.”

“I am very much a Malaysian. I have a Malaysian passport, a Malaysian Identity card and use Malaysian currency.”

Harris advised Yong that playing with emotions and exploiting the issue of Sabah4Sabahans would not resolve the 40 per cent issue. “There must be a good reason why Sabah’s ten Chief Ministers did not get the 40 per cent when they headed the state government.”

“The solution lies within the legal framework and administrative procedure of the country. There must be good legal reasons why 10 successive Chief Ministers did not know that there was payment to be made to the state government by the Federal Government.”

The Sabah Government, added Harris, had highly-qualified civil servants like the State Secretary, Attorney-General and the Treasurer-General to advise it on the 40 per cent question. “These three officials can answer why the Federal Government stopped paying the 40 per cent in 1974 i.e. ten years plus after Malaysia Day on 16 September 1963.”

Harris reckons that the 40 per cent must have been a transient provision, like other provisions, in the Federal Constitution, as otherwise the Federal Government would have continued making the payment. “Immigration, for example, is another transient provision, valid for ten years only, but because it’s a political hot potato, Sabah continues to maintain its immigration powers.”

Harris went on to dismiss Yong’s Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) as one which couldn’t win even one seat in GE 13. He attributed this to a long list of grievances that the people have against Yong from even before the time that he became Chief Minister.