SAPP bemoans Pakatan’s ‘overbearing Malaya political elite attitude’
Boo Su-Lyn, TMI
Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president Datuk Yong Teck Lee has grumbled about being accustomed to Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) “overbearing Malaya political elite attitude” in a fight over seats ahead of Election 2013.
Yong (picture) said he was willing to cede the Penampang and Sandakan parliamentary seats to PKR and the DAP, respectively, in the 13th general election ― both of which he said SAPP could field “winnable candidates” ― but pointed out that the PR parties still insisted on contesting the state seats.
“They think they’re so great; they can roughshod over Sabahans,” Yong told The Malaysian Insider in an interview at the SAPP operations centre here this week.
“I’m utterly disappointed, but not surprised,” added the former Sabah chief minister.
Yong said SAPP was open to PR contesting the majority of the 25 federal seats in Sabah, but stressed that the state seats should be left to local parties.
“Pakatan is forcing three-cornered fights on us. Anwar and Lim Kit Siang said Pakatan does not expect to win Sabah. So we don’t know why they want to disturb the state seats,” he said, referring to Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and DAP stalwart Lim.
“Let the local parties have the majority of state seats and we’ll let them capture most of the parliamentary seats. Pakatan just wants six, seven, twelve MPs,” added Yong.
Yong said his party would contest most of the 60 state seats in Sabah.
SAPP, which left Barisan Nasional (BN) in September 2008, currently has two MPs ― Datuk Eric Enchin Majimbun in Sepanggar and Datuk Chua Soon Bui in Tawau ― as well as two assemblymen within the Kota Kinabalu parliamentary constituency, Datuk Liew Teck Chan in Likas and Melanie Chia in Luyang.
The ruling coalition swept the state in Election 2008, with the DAP winning only the Kota Kinabalu federal seat and the Sri Tanjong state seat.
Yong also said SAPP would support Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, chief of the Sabah State Reform Party (STAR), in the Bingkor state seat in Keningau.
