We know of powerful vested interest groups which are desperate to ensure the opposition and SAPP’s defeat.
COMMENT
By Yong Teck Lee
While waiting for my delayed flight from Sandakan, I watched with extreme worry the BN-dominated TV news last night (Saturday) of Barisan Nasional chairman Najib Tun Razak in Kuching saying that BN can regain its 2/3 majority in Parliament.
What makes Najib so confident? In fact, BN is lucky if it can remain in power.
Is Najib bluffing? Or will (more) dirty tricks and secret weapons be deployed by BN-Umno this week?
Is it the campaign of fear about the Philippine Sulu incursion?
Why did the Defence Minister chose this week to say that there are three opposition leaders, one in Sabah, who are behind the Lahad Datu Sulu incursion on Feb 9?
If the Defence Minister was sincere about not wanting to politicise the evidence about the three opposition leaders, then he should have just shut up. He should have left it to the authorities to take action against these so-called opposition leaders, that is if they truly exist.
To claim that he is withholding the names of the three opposition leaders so as not to be accused of politicising the issue and yet revealing the matter at this time is a serious self-contradiction.
The Defence Minister is playing politics with national security which voters must condemn through the ballot box on May 5, so that we get a new government and a new Defence Minister on May 6.
We have also received reports from across Sabah of unprecedemted sums of money being distributed by BN.
As early as last week, reports trickled in of RM500 being paid to voters in Likas by BN agents.
In some areas, it is reported to me that voters are asked to collect BRIM vouchers but will be given cash.
BN accessing private databases
In Sandakan, BN agents are paying RM30 per head for people just to attend BN ceramahs.
A Putatan voter was given RM100 at a BN ceramah. In Tawau, maggie mee, rice, eggs and RM50 ang pow are being delivered door to door.
One cannot fathom the huge amounts of money involved in the coming week.
I condemn the money politics of BN which has corrupted not only itself but also becoming a virus to the rest of society.
Another new development in this election is the numerous SMSes being sent out by BN campaigners. Voters are being inundated with vote BN text messages.
Luyang voters get direct phone calls and SMSes from Luyang BN campaigners. Likas voters, including myself, get repeated SMSes on our mobile phones from my BN opponent in Likas.
I suspect that BN has access to private database of telephone companies such as IC numbers and phone numbers of subscribers.
How else could the relevant BN candidate knows the phone numbers of its voters?
They must have cross checked the IC numbers of phone subscribers with the electoral rolls. What can the opposition, especially local parties like SAPP (Sabah Progressive Peoples Party) do about it?
We know of powerful vested interest groups which are desperate to ensure the defeat of the opposition, especially SAPP which is fighting this election as an underdog.
I urge out voters to stay focused on Sabah issues and to be confident that we will get a stronger Sabah in Malaysia after May 5.
Yong Teck Lee is a former Sabah Chief Minister and president of local opposition Sabah Progressive Peoples Party (SAPP)
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