KOTA KINABALU, April 13 ― The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) has estimated a five to 15 per cent vote swing among the Kadazandusun Murut (KDM) community that will enable the party and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) to capture at least five federal seats in Election 2013.
SAPP president Datuk Yong Teck Lee said his party and PR expected to wrest Tuaran, Kota Marudu, Tenom, Keningau, and Pensiangan ― as well as state seats Kundasang and Inanam ― from Barisan Nasional (BN) in the 13th general election on May 5.
“Inflation and land grabs have intensified,” said Yong told The Malaysian Insider in an interview at the SAPP operations centre here this week.
“What was exposed in the RCI was generally known, but the RCI made details known in an official forum,” added the former Sabah chief minister, referring to the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in the state.
The RCI revealed testimonies by Filipinos and other foreigners on how they were given blue identity cards within a few years of arriving in Sabah, while former National Registration Department (NRD) officers have testified about selling ICs to illegal immigrants for profit, or issuing them temporary documents to vote in elections.
Yong said that SAPP would fight for native customary rights and reinstate 999-year land titles, which had been slashed to 99 years two years ago, should it form the Sabah state government
Yong also accused the DAP of wanting to contest in Sabah seats only to fuel its ambition to form the federal government with Umno after Election 2013.
“After the elections, it’ll probably just be Umno and DAP. Whoever forms the federal government, DAP has the sole monopoly over Chinese areas,” said Yong.
“I think DAP is quietly being the middleman and wants to keep alive the option of an Umno-DAP federal government,” he added.
The DAP currently has 29 federal seats, compared to PKR’s 23 and PAS’s 23.
The Malaysian Insider reported previously that Umno was considering facing the DAP head-on by banking on Malay support, pointing out that MCA had no chance of defeating the DAP.
MCA won just 15 out of the 40 federal seats it contested in Election 2008.
The Sin Chew Chinese daily also reported this week that MCA will “lend” its seats to Umno in Election 2013, in what is perceived as the Chinese party’s lack of confidence in retaining those seats.
Yong said that the DAP did not want even Chinese PKR candidates to contest in Sabah state seats.
“PKR was more flexible. DAP was very tough from day one,” he said, referring to the failed seat negotiations between SAPP and the Sabah State Reform Party (STAR) with PR.
Yong said he was happy to let PR contest most of the federal seats in Sabah, but insisted that state seats should be left to local parties to maintain the autonomy of the Borneo state.
Some Chinese voters at a SAPP ceramah on Wednesday night echoed Yong’s views, saying that a local party would best understand issues peculiar to Sabah, like the influx of illegal immigrants and land grabs.
“They’re quite selfish,” a 27-year-old salesman, who only wanted to be known as Vun, told The Malaysian Insider, referring to the DAP.
“They shouldn’t handle both parliament and DUN. If not, they’ll be like BN,” he added, referring to the state legislative assembly by its Malay acronym.
A 55-year-old cafe owner called Kath said that she would vote for SAPP in her Luyang state constituency.
“SAPP has been serving the people 16 years. MCA and DAP just set up office this year or last year,” she told The Malaysian Insider, without giving her full name.
BY BOO SU-LYN
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