Yong accepts challenge to slap Home Minister

KOTA KINABALU - Former chief minister Datuk Seri Panglima Yong Teck Lee has accepted the challenge by Home Minister Zahid Hamidi’s challenge to slap the latter.

“On Home Minister Zahid's slap challenge for me to slap him personally, I accept his challenge and invite him to come to visit Lahad Datu and Semporna without being escorted by his crowd of bodyguards and police and army security cordon,” he said.

The SAPP President also said he will donate the RM501 from Zahid to the Tabung Wira Lahad Datu (Lahad Datu Heroes Fund) for the benefit of the famililes of the fallen heroes who were sacrificed in defending Sabah during the Lahad Datu Tanduo intrusion in March 2013.

“If Zahid keeps his promise to pay the RM501 upon being slapped, I am confident that Sabahans will contribute more than ten times to the Fund,” he quipped.

He was responding to Zahid’s challenge issued duuring his address to home ministry staff at Putrajaya on Monday that Yong need not pay someone else to slap him (Zahid) and should be brave enough to do it himself.

"I am also making an offer - of RM501 - to this good person for him to personally come slap me.

"If he is brave enough to do so, why ask others to slap me?" he asked, without naming Yong.

Yong also said he hoped Zahid will not break his promise like what he had done when he failed to reveal the names of the three oposition leaders whom he alleged were behind the Lahad Datu Tanduo intrusion.

“Last year on the eve of early polling by security forces and families at the 13th General Elections, Zahid had claimed that the three opposition leaders involved in the Lahad Datu Tanduo intrusion will be revealed after the elections. But to date, he has failed to do so and kept his silence on the matter,” said Yong.

He also reiterated that the people of Sabah have suffered too long because of the failure of the federal government to fulfill its constitutional duty to secure Sabah from foreign intrusions and cross border violent crimes, resulting in a loss of confidence on the authorities.

“The recent cross border abductions of tourists have inevitably caused severe damage to the economy as well. We can imagine the extreme trauma currently faced by the kidnap victims and the anguish felt by the victims' families. Perhaps the ministers do not feel the suffering of the people in Sabah. "Enough is enough!” he said.