PAKATAN Rakyat (PR) has
officially excluded Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) from seat negotiations on
Sabah’s opposition front, PKR’s Azmin Ali has confirmed, claiming the party’s
demands are too unreasonable to accommodate.
With SAPP out of the seat
negotiations, Pakatan can now have all the 576 state seats to contest for the
whole of Malaysia for themselves, ironically claiming that SAPP's demands for
half of the Sabah state seats of 60 (that is 30 seats) are unreasonable.
Pakatan had wanted the
lion's share of state seats while only offering 10 for SAPP to contest.
SAPP, a nearly
two-decade-old party led by former Sabah chief minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee,
had earlier agreed to collaborate with PR in Election 2013 to topple BN from
its east Malaysian fortress, but has been insisting that local parties must
contest the lion’s share of the 60 seats in the state’s legislative assembly.
Yong said the
peninsula-based PR can contest the majority of Sabah’s 25 federal seats to help
its bid for Putrajaya but maintained that administrative power over the state
must stay in the hands of parties with roots in Sabah.
He said that this would be
in keeping with the state’s right to autonomy as enshrined in the 1963 Malaysia
Agreement.
But Azmin told The Malaysian
Insider that Yong’s demand for 40 or even half the state’s 60 seats was
unreasonable while in fact, the number was reduced by SAPP to half of 60 ie. 30
seats. Azmin must have or intentionally missed the part.
Earlier on, SAPP Youth Chief
Edward Dagul told Pakatan not to breach but to honour its pledge during the 'Kuching
Declaration' in Kuching, Sarawak.
The three main parties of
Pakatan Rakyat had on Sep 16, 2012 launched 'Kuching Declaration' to declare
that Pakatan will restore Sarawak and Sabah's status equal to that Peninsular
Malaysia and to safeguard the two States' political interests. It also
emphasized on equal representation and autonomy. The declaration was jointly
signed by PKR's leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, DAP's YB Lim Kit Siang and PAS
president YB Hadi Awang.
Among others, the declaration's
Article 1 promises " We will restore the spirit of the Malaysia Agreement
and the position of Sarawak and Sabah as equal partners within Malaysia by
restoring autonomy to Sarawak and Sabah within the framework of the Federal
Constitution".
Under Article 2 on
"Fair representation", the declaration promises to "increase
national integration between Sarawak, Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia through
power-sharing arrangement that fully upholds the spirit of Malaysia
Agreement".
With SAPP and Star excluded
from the seats negotiation, Pakatan will become wholly Malayan-controlled party
coalition without Sabah local-based parties as allies, now having total control
over whatever seats they want to control without regard nor respect for the
home parties and Sabah territory as equal partners. (Wiki Sabah)
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