Opposition ‘spoilers’ giving Sabah BN quiet wins

By Luke Rintod of FMT

STAR and SAPP have reminded Sabah DAP and Sabahans that
voting for Pakatan would be a case of jumping from the
frying pan into fire situation.

KOTA KINABALU : Opposition parties DAP, SAPP and STAR have a common enemy in Barisan Nasional. Yet they seem unable to hold it together, constantly kniving each other instead of plotting against their enemy.

This in itself is intriguing and is telling of Sabah’s layered opposition politics which runs deep on distrust.

Yesterday, DAP’s sole parliamentarian Hiew King Chew, accused both State Reform Party (STAR) and Sabah Progressive Peoples Party (SAPP) of being “useless” parties that cannot do anything.

“It is a waste to vote STAR or SAPP,” he had said in statement that lumped the two parties as “spoilers” in the 13th general election.

Hiew’s statement was featured prominently in Sabah local dailies, spiking the heat in what will be an all-time ‘do or die’ elections for some groups.

SAPP information chief, Chong Pit Fah however shot Hiew’s view as “arrogant” and merely promoting Pakatan Rakyat to replace BN, at the expense of Sabahans’ real aspiration to restore glory to state autonomy.

“Let me remind Hiew that it is his boss Lim Kit Siang who admitted that DAP cannot win Sabah.

“So if (Pakatan) cannot win Sabah, why must contest here and become a spoiler?” Chong retorted.

Chong was referring to Lim’s recent interview with Sin Chew Daily in which he had said that Pakatan was set to recapture Perak, retain Kedah, Penang, Kelantan and Selangor and take over only Perlis and Negeri Sembilan.

“It is also strange that Hiew is always complaining about SAPP flags being flown everywhere including near his office, when he never complained about Umno or BN flags,” said Chong, who accused Hiew of feeling threatened by surging support for local parties like SAPP.

Who’s greedy?

Chong also said that Hiew’s argument that should SAPP form a state government it would run into trouble just like previous Parti Bersatu Sabah’s state government was “lame and outdated”.

“PBS time was different as Umno was very strong then under Dr Mahathir Mohamad, but now the landscape has changed with both BN and PR equally strong or weak, in need of continuous support from Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.

He also called on Hiew to reflect on Lim and Pakatan leader Anwar Ibrahim’s persistent statements that the country is going bankrupt.

He said it was Malaya that was going bankrupt and because of their greed, it was bankrupting the whole nation.

“Bankrupting Malaysia is not the doing of Sabah and Sarawak. In fact Sabah and Sarawak are cushioning the economic impacts of Malaya’s border-less greed and unrepentant plundering the country,” he said.

Chong, who is poised to stand as SAPP candidate for Kepayan state seat near here, argued that Hiew has no right to accuse state parties of greed.

“Unlike DAP, SAPP has always been here for the single reason that it fights for Sabah and Sabahans, and of course we are looking at seats within Sabah of which there are only 25 parliamentary seats and 60 state seats

“There are more than 400 state seats in Peninsular and 165 parliamentary seats over there that the DAP and Pakatan can lay their hands on, so why is still the greed to grab the few seats in Sabah too?

“Seriously now, who is greedy?” asked Chong.

Saving Sabah

Meanwhile, Chong’s counterpart from STAR, Edward Linggu, in a separate statement, said Hiew, who is Kota Kinabalu MP, has chosen to forget that Sabah has special rights, privileges and autonomy and these were the conditions on which the state agreed to forming Malaysia in 1963.

Linggu questioned the patriotism of Hiew as he refused to fight for Sabah’s rights but instead help surrender Sabah to yet another group from across the South China Sea.

“STAR sees Sabah as its home to assert the peoples’ right to do away with dictation by outsider party. But sadly, our efforts are being hampered by other Malaya-based parties like DAP which is out to split votes here,” Linggu argued.

Linggu said Hiew needs to wake up to the reality that the people of Sabah had awakened from their slumber and wanted to assert their rights to the RM42 billion collected annually by Kuala Lumpur from the state.

“Let me tell Hiew, nobody will help Sabahans except ourselves.

“STAR is fighting for something BN Sabah parties don’t dare to do, that is to take back our rights which were promised to us in the Malaysia Agreement, the IGC Report, the 20 Points and the Oath Stone.

“These rights have been eroded and will be completely wiped out if yet another Malayan parties continue to rule over us because they have no understanding of the genuine desires Sabahans,” Linggu said.

He said voting for Pakatan is like jumping from the BN frying pan into the Pakatan fire.