It is now a full-scale war between the two opposition parties contesting the Batu Sapi parliamentary seat.

After weeks of posturing and peace talks in the run-up to nomination day on Tuesday, the mitts are finally off as both SAPP and PKR declare themselves the saviors of  Sabah.

NONE Though SAPP president Yong Teck Lee told journalists earlier that SAPP and PKR would not attack each other and focus on their common enemies the BN and Umno, it seems he could not help himself.

Yong, who is SAPP’s candidate for Batu Sapi, launched the first salvo on Tuesday night telling voters at a ceramah that there is too much infighting in PKR that it would make no sense to become part of Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

He claims that the PKR disarray was bad to the point that some of the party members were involved in a fistfight at the Sandakan airport over the party’s choice of candidate, hours before the nomination process.

NONE “They were boxing at the airport. If a husband and wife fight at home every day, do you want to join that household? That’s why we say, we can be friends, but not necessarily get married,” he said to the amusement of the small crowd assembled in Kg Karamunting Baru.

Yong also  played on at local sentiments, telling his listeners that voting for Pakatan would be no different from voting for  the BN as both are sombong (snobbish) Peninsular Malaysia-based parties while SAPP is the only home-grown party capable of creating a better Sabah.

Yong never delivered

Countering the salvo, PKR supreme council member and Johor chief Chua Jui Meng sliced through Yong’s credentials as a leader, questioning his track record as a politician and having stuck with the BN for the past 16 years.

NONE “I ask Yong to look at his own record when he was chief minister. During his term, did he implement the reform he talks about, especially the autonomy of Sabah?

“I never heard of him talking about autonomy when he was chief minister,” he said yesterday during a press conference at PKR operations centre.

PKR candidate Ansari Abdullah also brushed aside Yong’s claim of an altercation between PKR members, saying such incidences are normal in politics.

“I would like to remind all that when the BN announced its candidate, almost all (BN) Sekong committee members left the hall... so this is something very common in politics.”

NONE In sharp retort to  Yong’s claim that there was persistent infighting in Sabah PKR, Ansari pointed out that the party has not lost any of its assemblypersons in Sabah nor senior leaders since the March 2008 general elections.

“I think SAPP lost more than us. From four assemblypersons, they now have two. His former deputy (Raymond Tan Shu Kiah) also attacked him in the media. So please put your own house in order before you talk about others,” he said.

Yong could have been sole candidate but...

Chua claimed that there had been many attempts by PKR to convince Yong to side Pakatan in this by-election, but in the end, the SAPP chief decided to throw it all back on their faces.

He said this left them with little choice but to go on an all-out offensive against SAPP as that is the only way Sabah Pakatan will have any chance in this contest.

NONE Chua explained that during negotiations , Pakatan was willing to fully back Yong’s candidacy in a straight fight against the BN, provided that he stood under the Pakatan banner.

“When campaigning door to door and at markets, restaurants and among the Chinese communities, the most frequent question people ask me is, why is it a three-cornered fight?

“Pakatan must come in, because we need to have a presence in Sabah through a local candidate. We have only one message... join the rest of the country, especially the Chinese in Peninsular (Malaysia) and Sarawak to bring change to the country and Sabah.

“Sibu is the turning point for Sarawak. The BN stronghold fell and because of that the whole BN in Sarawak is threatened. That’s why the BN has to delay the state polls.

“We encourage the Batu Sapi people to be the Sibu for Sabah... this will shake the BN in Sabah,” he said.