Yong offers RM500 to slap Zahid
Former chief minister says latest kidnapping incident shows that Defence Minister has yet again failed in his sworn duty
(The Borneo Insider) – Home Minister Zahid Hamidi rash words back in February could come back to haunt him when he next visits Sabah and that could be very soon considering what happened last night in Semporna.
Former Sabah chief minister Yong Teck Lee has offered RM500 to anyone who slaps the Home Minister for yet another security breach in east coast of the state after a spate of such incidents.
“I offer another RM500 for another slap on the Home Minister for his broken promise to reveal the names of the “three opposition leaders” behind the Lahad Datu Tanduo intrusion last year,” he added.
It’s an echo of the incident involving DAP MP Teresa Kok and a group calling itself the ‘Council of Islamic NGOs’ which slaughtered two chickens and offered a RM1,200 reward to anyone who slapped her for allegedly insulting the Malay leadership and Islam.
Zahid had at the time dismissed the threat as of no importance and questioned the need for the police to probe the protesters. “Why do we need to investigate that? Slapping is not a threat. If they say murder, then it is a threat,” he was quoted as saying by the Malaysian Insider.
Yong made the latest offer as a way of expressing the anger felt by Sabahans today over the latest cross-border kidnapping of a female tourist and a resort worker last night.
The SAPP president reminded that Zahid, who then held the Defence portfolio, had on the eve of early polling by security forces and families in last year’s general elections, accused three opposition leaders of being behind the Sulu intrusion at Lahad Datu.
Zahid had said that he would reveal the names of the three after the general elections but never did.
Yong has also asked Sabah’s leaders in the Barisan Nasional government to censure the Defence Minister for failing in his duties.
“I also offer RM1,000 to any BN MP who moves a motion in Parliament to deduct the salaries of the Home Minister, Defence Minister and the Rural Development Minister (Shafie Apdal, the MP for Semporna) to show the anger of Sabahans over the repeated failures of the federal government to fulfil its constitutional duty to protect Sabah and people,” he said.
Yong reminded that security was the promise made to Sabah when the former British colony was being wooed to agreed to form Malaysia in 1963.
The former chief minister predicted that some federal officials would again blame the long coastline, the lack of resources and lack of co-operation from the people for the audacious raid last night.
“I have repeatedly said the only thing lacking is the lack of top officials being held responsible when things go wrong. The honourable thing now for police and armed forces top brass in Sabah, including the ESSCOM director, is to ask to be transferred out of Sabah,” he said.
Yong noted that after the last security breach at Pom Pom resort last November, the police had announced that two men believed to be linked to the murder-kidnapping were arrested.
“Nothing has been heard about the two men ever since. Such security breaches inflict irreparable losses to the Sabah economy and damages Sabah’s image that will take years to painstakingly repair,” concluded Yong.
