GE13: DAP Sabah gets help from Smear Campaigners from KL to attack SAPP

KOTA KINABALU: A group of people are allegedly hanging around at coffee shops with a mission to talk bad about Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) and its president Datuk Seri Panglima Yong Teck Lee.

Dubbed ‘Red Army’, the group is believed to have hailed from the peninsular and specially deployed by fellow opposition counterpart, Democratic Action Party (DAP), according to SAPP Women chief Melanie Chia.

“They would sit at coffee shop, day and night, to talk bad about SAPP and our president,” she claimed, adding that DAP has also flown in their cyber troopers to spread lies and instill hatred against them in the cyberspace and on the ground.

“When confronted by our members, the Red Army just keep quiet. We later found out that they were from the Peninsular Malaysia,” claimed Chia who is SAPP candidate for Luyang.

She said SAPP was quite certain that these people were deployed by the DAP, judging from the issues spun by them and their lines of defense when confronted, which matched those uttered by such Sabah DAP leaders like its adviser cum candidate for Luyang Dr Hiew King Cheu and its candidate for Likas, Junz Wong.

Chia noted that among the common allegations spread by the DAP cyber troopers and their Red Army were that SAPP had received funds amounting to RM80 million from BN to act as a ‘spoiler’ in the general election by splitting the opposition votes.

Besides, the specially deployed group claimed that SAPP had never attacked BN and its leaders, as it planned to return to ruling coalition after the election, she said.

Chia therefore reiterated SAPP’s challenge to the various DAP leaders or candidates to a public debate on such allegations instead of deploying the cowardice ‘guerilla tactics’ to attack her party and its leaders from behind.

“This is the reason why we had invited them to be more gentlemen by coming forward to our ceramah (talks) to confront us on issues and allegations raised by them all these while, instead of hitting us from behind, under the belt and then runaway,” she said.

She said such tactics are not only unfair to SAPP and its leaders, but also reflected badly on the characteristics and qualities of the Sabah DAP leaders.

“We know the Rocket (DAP) leaders are well-respected in West Malaysia, but their leaders here are certainly not the same as those in the peninsula,” she said.

Earlier, Chia also expressed concern over the “culture of hatred” that is being spread by the cyber troopers of their opponents, both from the DAP and BN.

She said this could be seen from the many postings attached with photoshopped pictures that were posted by these cyber troopers in the social media like the Facebook.

The latest being the one which accused her (Chia) of condemning Sabah DAP chief Jimmy Wong for likening DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang to the Pope.

However, Chia said she believed the said posting was done by BN cyber troopers to pit SAPP against DAP, adding that her suspicion was confirmed upon a background check conducted on the person responsible for the said posting.

“Unlike others, we in SAPP would not stoop so low to attack our opponents. All these while, we were only responding to allegations leveled against us.”

Chia urged the relevant authorities to take action against those responsible for postings that were inciting hatred among the populace, the young generation in particular.

“They are bringing in this ‘hate culture’ into cyber space and it is affecting our young people and this culture could later perpetuate in other forms and we don’t want that, as after the election, we still can be friends, as we are all Sabahans. We can fight and quarrel about issues and on matters of principle and our stand. But after the election when a new government is formed, we are all Sabahans still,” she stressed.

She also revealed that SAPP Youth Luyang chief Yong Yit Yoong had lodged a police report.

Also present in the occasion was Simon Chin, SAPP Luyang director of operations.

by Sandra Sokial