Constructive and innovative relationship with Pakatan Rakyat in Sabah without compromising on the principle of local autonomy.

This is how Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) president Yong Teck Lee wants the ties to be forged with Pakatan Rakyat to be after a breakfast meeting with PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim in Kota Kinabalu yesterday.

Sapp also made it abundantly clear to newly-inducted members at a function at the party's Patutan centre, formerly a Barisan Nasional office, outside Kota Kinabalu that their common objective is to topple the BN government.

sapp remove bn logo 200808 yong teck lee Yong said he believed that Anwar understands and appreciates the unique position that Sapp is taking in Sabah with regards to its working relationship with PKR and Pakatan.

As an indication of the continuing support from his elected representatives for him and the party, Sapp's two MPs Dr Chua Soon Bui and Dr Eric Majinbum as well as the Luyang state assemblyperson and former state assistant minister Melanie Chia, secretary-general Richard Yong, besides other party leaders, all turned up at the opening of the Patutan centre in Patutan Square at noon.

More than 600 new members were welcomed into the party, which political observers say seems to be gaining support on the ground after the party pulled out from the BN, because of increasing public disgruntlement with the present government over several issues.

Patutan, next to Petagas, is a predominantly Malay area, and many of the new members are from 10 branches in the Patutan area, giving the party leaders confidence of growing support from Malay/Muslim areas controlled by Umno and other BN parties.

Solving Sabah's problems

One of the new members is academic and columnist Amde Sidik, 56, who applied to join Sapp the day the party announced it was no longer in the BN on September 17.

Amde said in a statement yesterday that “I believe Sapp is the only Sabah-based party which can really focus on solving many of Sabah's problems.

He added that Sapp is going to be a full-fledged multi-racial party which he feels in the long run to be where most Malaysians are heading to.

“At present, political parties are seen as racial political parties. Even today, Sapp is made to be seen as a race-based political party. In view of this perception, I am keen to participate to help out in shaping the multi-racial direction of the party as a way forward for Malaysians.”

Dullie Marie, a former political secretary to a former minister in the Prime Minister's Department Pandikar Amin Mulia, led a group of individuals in the Patutan areas to join Sapp.

Yong said Sapp would expand to more areas when more political activists realised that 'the party is serious in its rebranding and re-inventing efforts to make itself more effective in the struggle for Sabahans.'

On his breakfast meeting with Anwar, in which several other leaders from Sapp and PKR were also present, he said they had discussed and agreed on several issues, including the need for a review of the agreement on the payment of oil and gas royalties and the question of autonomy for Sabah.

He said he was not surprised that the federal government was not agreeable to such a review as they wanted the money to go to its coffers.

“But I am surprised why the present Sabah government would not want to negotiate for such a review as this would benefit Sabahans”, Yong said, adding that the country's constitution could also be reviewed if everyone agreed to do it.