VESTED INTERESTS OUT TO NAIL YONG TECK LEE?

By : QUEVILLE TO

KOTA KINABALU: Former Sabah Chief Minister, Yong Teck Lee is expecting an intense, no-holds- barred campaign for the Likas state seat which he is contesting for in 13th general election.

Yong, who is also SAPP president, said “very powerful interest groups” are determined to ensure he loses and that the four-cornered fight with candidates from Barisan Nasional, DAP and STAR was par for the course.

“It’s not just Chin Su Yin [BN-LDP], or Junz Wong [DAP], or the STAR candidate [Ho Cheong Tshun]. There are very powerful vested interests behind my opponents who, come what may, must make sure I lose.

“So we are expecting intimidation, bribery, lies to surface in the coming days, to make sure I do not win at Likas,” he said.

He said this while speaking at the SAPP “kopitiam ceramah” held at the Foh Sang shopping area, in Luyang, here, on Sunday night.

While he painted a sombre picture of his election battle, Yong used his down-to-earth eloquence to tell the people why they should vote for him rather than his opponents.

He said even if SAPP did not get the chance to form the Sabah government, if he was elected he would ensure there was “no peace day or night” for would-be chief minister Musa Aman, if BN wins the majority of seats and forms the state government.

He said he and his party colleagues (if elected) would move a motion of no confidence against the chief minister, starting with the issue of the RM40 million “donation” that was intercepted at Hong Kong International Airport, which Umno authorities took a long time to explain.

“If we can do it to the prime minister of Malaysia, what is the chief minister of Sabah?” he asked, referring to how the party’s two former MPs, Chua Soon Bui and Eric Majimbun, supported a no- confidence motion against the former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in 2008 when SAPP was still in the BN.

Political survival

Yong, who is battling for his and his party’s political survival, also promised to raise the various issues affecting the state and its people.

These pressing issues, he said, included the change in land laws by the state government; land grabs by statutory bodies and large corporations that have affected the native community; the Saham Amanah Sabah fiasco; and the issue of corruption.

“We will take up these and many other issues in a ferocious debate which must be conducted in Bahasa Malaysia.

“So far I don’t see any other opposition candidates who are capable of this,” he said in a dig at Sabah DAP’s representatives in the State Legislative Assembly and Parliament respectively, Jimmy Wong and Hiew King Cheu.

“I don’t see other leaders whether from PKR or DAP doing it,” he added.

Yong said that he had the courage and skill to debate effectively in Bahasa Malaysia and also has vast experience in government and knows how the system works.

“Hence, if I’m elected, not only will the opposition not be humiliated like in the past, but I will even whack them [BN representatives] hard [in the State Legislative Assembly,” he said, referring to an incident where DAP’s Wong caused confusion when he spoke in Bahasa Malaysia.

He said this was also the reason powerful, vested interest groups who are fearful, would do their best to make sure he loses in this election.