SAPP targets 40 state seats
By Queville To, Free Malaysia Today
PAPAR: The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) has reiterated that it will put up its own candidates in 40 state constituencies in the next election.
The opposition party sees this as crucial to gain the two-thirds majority in the state assembly to form the next state government.
SAPP president Yong Teck Lee said this at the launching of the party’s Kampung Kuala branch-cum-Hari Raya open house which was hosted by pro-tem branch chairman, Abdul Rashid Masir, in Pantai Manis, Papar, here on Thursday.
“We will cooperate with the other opposition parties (in the seats we are contesting),” Yong said, adding that SAPP is starting preparations for the 13th general election beginning December this year after the party’s supreme council election in early November.
“Even though the present term (of the government) is only expiring in 2013, we have to be prepared. Normally it will not be up to five years and if they want to hold it simultaneously with Sarawak, it (the general election) will be in 2011,” he said.
He reminded party members to prepare themselves to face all kinds of challenges, including intimidation of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN).
He said the fact that SAPP had continued to grow and muster support from the people in the state despite leaving the ruling coalition had caused the BN to be restless.
“Before (when in the BN) SAPP was known as a mosquito party but now (as an opposition) SAPP is seen as the main challenger to the BN (in the next general election),” he said, adding that because of this, the BN is now using all kinds of tactics including intimidation to scare off SAPP members and supporters.
Tactics having an effect
Yong claimed that the tactics were already having an effect with party members in Karamunting, Sandakan, who were under pressure and being forced to keep a low profile.
One of them, he said, was the new branch chief who had told him (Yong) that he had to avoid attracting attention.
“When he first joined SAPP, this man was so high-spirited but all of a sudden he says he wants to keep a low profile… he has got a family member working as a teacher who had been cautioned by the employer for the father’s involvement in SAPP,” said Yong.
“This is their (BN) style. Remember two years ago? Just three days before (SAPP left the BN), they gave me a recommendation letter to become member of the Dewan Negara.
“For one to be recommended as a senator, he or she must have a clean record and not have income tax problem and so on.
“But, one day after (SAPP left the BN) the then Anti-Corruption Agency director-general made a press statement that I was under investigation,” Yong said.
Yong said that he even had to call the State ACA’s office to check when his statement would be taken because he was worried that they might stop him at the airport just as he was leaving for overseas to attend his son’s convocation.
“I called up the Sabah ACA and asked them about it but they were clearly at a loss and instead they asked me what statement I wanted to make…
“This is their way of threatening people. SAPP left the BN coalition with a clear conscience. We didn’t owe them anything but we were branded by then prime minister (Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) as ‘too greedy’,” he said.
