Pang’s resignation will aggravate conflict within BN
By Dominic Legeh
(FMT) KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) sees deputy Chief Minister Peter Pang’s quitting from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and his offer to resign from his state cabinet posts as a symptom of the malaise in Barisan Nasional (BN) today.
SAPP president Yong Teck Lee said Pang’s resignation from LDP and his offer to step down from his state cabinet posts is a sign of further aggravation of internal conflict in the BN.
“To put things in prospective, Pang’s resignation is the basic cause of the political problem facing BN.
“It is only a symptom that we see today. But this symptom today has now become very public and will further aggravate the internal conflict in BN,” he said.
“So today’s timing is good (for us). We have ‘Pilihanku SAPP’ (my choice is SAPP),” he told reporters after officiating the launch of the ‘Pilihanku SAPP’ booklet authored by Emin Madi yesterday.
Asked whether he was saying it as an offer to Pang, he said: “No, no, no. Looking at the situation since noon today, many things have been revealed.
“The fact that the Prime Minister said Pang had told him that he was joining Gerakan means this is not a spontaneous and instantaneous thing that happened in the last one or two days.
“There would have been a process of discussion leading to today’s announcement…but personally I’m not surprised by the announcement because you have Chin Su Phin and others who have declared they will not cooperate with the Chief Minister.
“And then you have the president (VK Liew) who is neither here nor there and now you have Pang who decides to leave LDP, meaning he will side with the Chief Minister and not with his own party,” Yong said.
He further added that the situation was not only about Pang’s resignation because there were so many other things happening within BN.
Downfall of BN government
He said Pang’s resignation could also be read in the context of Salleh Said, the Sabah Umno deputy chairman’s disclosure of a plot by LDP and others to topple Chief Minister Musa Aman.
“(So) this goes back to my earlier point, which is further aggravation of the internal conflict in BN that will help to expedite the downfall of BN government.
“Since Sabah is considered as a BN ‘fixed deposit’ in Malaysia. When they lose the ‘fixed deposit’ even at the Federal level, they also will lose,” he said.
