KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) President Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee said it is unfair to blame Star and his party for not adopting the one-on-one approach promoted by Desah under Tan Sri Simon Simon.
Instead, he said Sipaun lost sight of the “massive bribery and money politics, the not-so-indelible ink, the still tainted electoral rolls, the postal votes, the vicious lies (by both Umno and DAP), the crumbling PKR machinery due to intense sense by betrayal by their KL Leaders and the extreme lack of resources by local parties like SAPP and Star which had to fight this very tough battle on their own.
“SAPP was wiped out, as predicted by Sipaun, but SAPP retains our honour, our pride and our dignity as Sabahans who refused to be a kerbau dicucuk hidung. Sabahans with honour will fight another day.
SAPP’s struggle is not a personal agenda for a few leaders to become YBs but a struggle on Sabah issues.
“We saw how Snap (and recently PSM) were bullied (both were member of Pakatan). Eventually by February, the doors were closed by Lajim of PPPS, W Bumburing of APS and finally Azmin Ali of PKR, much to the delight of DAP.
Yong also said PKR/PAS/DAP were in no mood to listen to Sipaun or anybody from Desah. Instead, Sipaun had to attend their functions, which they realized would only boost their standing.
“Last last year, Lim Kit Siang spent an entire week in Sabah but snubbed you and all us all by refusing to attend the joint forum organized by Desah which Star and SAPP had accepted. Desah could not even secure an appointment to meet Anwar,” he said.
Yong said SAPP had deliberately stayed away from winnable MP seats in last week’s 13th general election like Tuaran, Beaufort, Kota Belud, Papar, Pensiangan, Batu Sapi, Keningau and Ranau. SAPP also stayed away from Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan and Penampang, which were won by PKR/DAP.
“But the mishandling of Pakatan seats sharing resulted in half the PKR divisions rebelling and bringing their machinery to Umno. The much-touted PPPS (Lajim) and APS (Wilfred Bumburing) failed to deliver any MP seats.
Yong said Sipaun’s focus was on Pakatan capturing Putrajaya that would lead to a change in the assemblymen to PKR/PAS),” he said.
Yong also told Sipaun that he was worried with the continued racial polarisation among voters. Based on the election results, the bottom line was that seats with more than 40 per cent Bumi Muslim votes were won by BN. Sabah Umno won all its seats with the sole exception of Klias, which Lajim won (majority 179) but won on the 2.000 Chinese votes, he said, adding that it was the reason that Lajim could win Klias but lost the Beaufort MP seat.
All the other 11 state seats won by the opposition were overwhelmingly non-Muslim while in the Chinese areas, the bigger the Chinese majority, the bigger the opposition majority, he noted. Yong said that was the national trend up till May 5.
Nationally, Umno regained nine MP seats, including Balik Pulau at Penang. Borneo contributed six new MPs to Pakatan. Malaya’s Pakatan could only increase one seat.
“Extremely convinced by Anwar and Kit Siang that they will capture Putrajaya, 80 per cent of urban Chinese voted for Pakatan (even PAS) candidates irrespective of character.
“But in Malaya, there was a slight swing among Malays and Indians back to BN. In Borneo, the Muslim and a majority of natives stayed put with BN. These are the issues to look into,” he said.
I think right now what we need is more competition. SAPP and STAR cannot follow BN who are willing to lay down their ideals and principles for the sake of winning seats.
ReplyDeleteSure BN can win easy. But for the parties in BN, all their ideals, principles, and promises don't mean anything because in the end they all answer to one Big Boss.
Just look at PKR. Always fighting, but they don't want to go separate ways because they know they will lose. Why would people want to vote for a government that is always at odds with itself?
On the other hand SAPP does not represent a specific race or religion. But I guess Sabahans don't want that kind of government. I guess they are either brainwashed, racist, religious extremists, or a combination of those because that is the only explanation I can come up with.