Sabah Progressive Party, a strong critic of the state Barisan Nasional leadership, has called for investigations into the so-called fiasco on the Saham Amanah Sabah unit trust that had reportedly caused losses of hundreds of millions of ringgit.

yong teck lee and sapp Sapp president and ex-chief minister Yong Teck Lee said in a statement today that “only after a clear and final investigation into the SAS affairs to punish culprits, if any, will the confidence of investors in SAS be restored."

He was commenting on the Sabah government’s injection of RM200 million into SAS as investment as approved by the state legislative assembly on August 25.

Never chairman of SAS

Yong said if investors’ confidence is not fully restored, there is no assurance that the so-called fiasco over SAS investments will not be repeated in the future and thereby putting the long awaited government investment of RM200 million at risk.

According to a newspaper report on June 25, 2007 PBS leader Chin Tek Ming “had falsely accused me as being the cause of the losses suffered by SAS investors by virtue of me being the chairman of SAS,” Yong said.

In fact, Yong clarified that he was never chairman or even a member of the SAS board of directors.

After the accusations by Chin Tek Ming, which was master minded by a state minister from PBS, Sapp had lodged a police report on 26 June 2007 to call for criminal investigations on the SAS issue.

SAPP had identified two persons (Chin Tek Ming and state minister Dr Yee Moh Chai) as possibly in possession of relevant information, facts and materials of possible crimes and offences committed in SAS because of their repeated statements on the SAS issue.

Yong said Sapp treasurer-general Wong Yit Ming had also called for a white paper to reveal the whole truth on SAS activities. ‘

"But this call for a white paper has not been accepted by the state government," he added.