Pang is no longer DCM, LDP wants Pang's post

Although Pang is no longer DCM, but keeps Youth and Sports portfolio. However, LDP felt it is not right for Pang to take his Youth and Sports portfolio with him to Gerakan and wants the state ministerial post to be returned to them.

“Peter Pang stripped of his Deputy Chief Minister post”, announced the Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman after the weekly Wednesday Cabinet meeting. It was hardly a day after Musa had warmly endorsed the entry of Pang into the Penang-based Parti Gerakan at Sandakan.

A local newspaper had screamed in its front page lead “DCM post to Gerakan”.  This makes Gerakan as having the shortest term Deputy Chief Minister for a day only. Sabah Gerakan’s two other assemblymen, Datuk Raymond Tan and Au Kam Wah are both from Sandakan.  As Gerakan Sandakan now has the same number of elected representatives as the rest of Malaysia, the new base of Parti Gerakan has shifted to Sandakan.

Short Joy

The big bash was witnessed by none other than Gerakan national president Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon who had flown in all the way from Putrajaya. Considering that Gerakan had been wiped out in Penang in the last general elections in March 2008, Pang’s entry is a welcome impetus to Gerakan’s dying fortunes in Peninsula Malaysia.

With Pang in the bag, Gerakan now has two ministers in the Sabah Cabinet, the other one being ex-SAPP defector Raymond who, like Pang, had remained partyless for a year before joining Gerakan. Upon joining Gerakan, Raymond was similarly stripped of his prestigious deputy chief minister post last May. Raymond was later replaced by Pang.

This time Musa created another trick to keep other BN Chinese assemblymen in check when he dangled the prize of DCM by declaring that the DCM post will be filled later. The question in people’s mind is which assemblymen among the Chinese will get the prize.

Who's next?

The remaining one of the three Chinese ministers in the Cabinet is Datuk Dr. Yee Moh Chai, a deputy president of PBS. BN analysts in the past have been quick to point out that the Chinese deputy chief minister slot is not likely to go to Yee because PBS already has another DCM, Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, the PBS president. By the same logic of BN power sharing, it is untenable that Gerakan will get to keep both its ministers in the cabinet.

Public speculation is now rife that the vacated Deputy Chief Minister slot will go to MCA Sabah chief, Datuk Edward Khoo. MCA entered Sabah in 1991 following closely the footsteps of its big brother UMNO. Its sole assemblyman, Khoo, has been twice elected on the MCA quota under the BN, having joined MCA in 1995. Unlike Pang and Raymond who are in the east coast of Sandakan, Khoo’s constituency is Kapayan in the capital city of Kota Kinabalu in the west coast. Being assistant minister in the chief minister’s department, Khoo has been tasked with looking after the Chinese community, the Chinese schools and religious state grants and Chinese clans and guilds association. That has put Khoo in close relationship with the Chinese community.

The major sticky hurdle is which minister will be dropped to make way for Khoo. It is unlikely that Yee will be dropped because PBS is the second biggest party in the State BN, with 11 assemblymen and three MPs.
Most likely to be dropped from the cabinet is one of the two Gerakan ministers, Raymond or Pang. Both have been stripped of their deputy chief minister posts after defecting to Gerakan. Both are from Sandakan. Both have no grass roots. Both were not elected on the Gerakan quota. Between Pang and Raymond, it is highly unlikely that Pang will be sacrificed because of his loyalty to the Chief Minister. Pang has put his neck on the chopping block six months ago when he parted with his party LDP which had declared that it could not work with Musa as Chief Minister. At the press conference announcing his resignation from LDP, a tearful Pang had even kissed his teddy bear. Musa is not likely to forget the loyalty of a close family and business friend like Pang.

It has to be remembered that on the very day that Pang left LDP, Prime Minister Dato Seri Najib Razak, had leaked out to the news that Pang was not leaving BN, only the LDP, and that Pang was joining Gerakan. That being six months ago, analysts had been wondering why it took so long for Pang to make his move. It seems that Pang had got himself a deal to remain as a minister, at least until the next general elections, if he were to join Gerakan.

The remaining favorite in the chopping block is Raymond Tan. Recent leakages to local newspapers has casted his ministry in a poor light. Media reports of the mismanagement of Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park began surfacing last month. Situated next to the Sepanggar container port, KK Industrial Park is the lifeline of the State’s industrial development. This lifeline is choking with alleged mismanagement. Contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers have downed tools, complaining about non-payment for work done. Staff and workers have resigned in protest at slow payment of salaries. The Chairman of KKIP is the State Minister of Industrial Development, Raymond. Sources in KKIP said that simmering scandal is a mini-PKFZ in the making. There is no proof of mismanagement but the media coverage of KKIP has provided the fodder for the minister’s dismissal. Local media have observed that the Chief Minister Musa has snubbed Raymond in recent activities under the ministry. The BIMP-EAGA expo in Kota Kinabalu last week end was a glaring example.

Will Khoo make it this time?

If Khoo makes it the DCM post, it is a very fitting tribute to the success of the Khoo family whose patriarch, the late Datuk Khoo Siak Chew, was Deputy Chief Minister in the independence era Cabinet.  By WS