YONG 'SLAPPING HIS OWN FACE'

LIBERAL Democratic Party (LDP) President, Datuk V.K. Liew said Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) President Datuk Yong Teck Lee was 'slapping his own face' by claiming that the present Sabah woes were caused by Umno Sabah.

Liew said Yong had played a role when Umno spread its wings to Sabah in the 1990s and that SAPP became a Barisan Nasional (BN) component party after it was formed in 1994. "This eventually led to the downfall of the PBS government when there were crossovers by certain politicians," he said.

Yong was also a Chief Minister during the rotation system, hence had a major role in the Sabah BN but he didn't make it (Umno Sabah) an issue.

"Only now when he is outside that he is making it into an issue," said Liew when asked to comment on Yong's statement in the Chinese press recently.

Met after opening the LDP West Coast Operations Room at Taipan, here Thursday, he said he was not aware if there was an agreement between all the component parties that Umno should not contest more than 50 per cent of the total seats when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad was the Prime Minister.

At the moment, Umno Sabah held 32 of the 60 state seats in Sabah, he said, when asked to comment on the statement by United Pasok Momogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) President Tan Sri Bernard Dompok.

"So I will take the words of Dompok and if there is (such an understanding) we should heed the advice of Tun Mahathir," he said.

Meanwhile, Liew, who is also a Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister Department, said the LDP is adapting quickly to the usage of the social media network and several new media platforms in the political battlefield.

He pointed out that Facebook had been identified as the most popular social media network website in Malaysia with about 10.1 million users registered as of the first quarter of this year.

He said the website had been used by elected representatives, especially like him who are carrying out duties outside his constituency, to engage with their constituents.

Another platform was Twitter with about 1.3 million users in Malaysia and among the famous personalities in the country who twits was the Prime Minister himself, he said.

Besides that, video images especially those uploaded in Youtube and mobile phone text messages are also effective in the propagating political ideology.