SAPP, STAR have discussions on election

KOTA KINABALU: Leaders from Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) and STAR have carried out discussions between them on matters related to the coming 13th general election.

SAPP president Datuk Yong Teck Lee told reporters yesterday, "our leaders had very cordial discussion with some leaders of STAR. The discussion involved myself, our three deputy presidents and Datuk Mohd Noor Mansor and Dr Jeffrey with some of his senior colleagues.

"We have converged on a number of issues and we have laid out the parameters of where we can work on and we are confident of further progress," he said at the weekly SAPP weekly mobile service at Gaya Street.

Yong also pointed out that several newspaper headlines yesterday made it appear that everything have been wrapped up between SAPP and other opposition parties in the state.

Some headlines pointed to the effect that STAR, SAPP and USNO have wrapped up their discussions and were now waiting to discuss with Pakatan Rakyat as a group.

Yong said that this was not accurate although the parameters have been laid out between STAR and SAPP. He pointed out that Usno is not a registered body and neither is Pakatan Rakyat.

"From what we read in the papers the coalition's members, PAS, PKR and DAP have their own respective individual negotiation panels. We are not aware of a Pakatan panel and these are issues that have to be straightened out.

“All this while negotiations were carried out with the individual parties' negotiating panels. Pakatan Rakyat is not registered while Pakatan Sabah does not have a committee. We do not know who to talk to in Pakatan as a whole.

"Therefore we have been talking to a number of leaders mainly in PKR, some in DAP, which was way back last year," he said.

To the question if SAPP has stopped negotiations with Pakatan Rakyat in Sabah, Yong replied, "we have not burned the bridges but we maintain the gate at the bridge."

According to him, it was important for SAPP to tell everybody in Sabah that DAP in their new manifesto, has talked about autonomy.

"But we have to tell them that with due respect, Malayan parties cannot talk about autonomy in Sabah. Malayan parties like DAP has no local standi, no right to talk about fighting about autonomy for Sabah. It is better for them to talk about national politics," Yong pointed out.