Apologise publicly or we’ll sue, DAP warns Yong

By Queville To

Former Sabah Chief Minister Yong Teck Lee's claims that DAP is colluding with Umno has ended any possibility of cordiality.

PENAMPANG: The gloves seems to  have finally come off between Sabah DAP and the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) after months of party officials on either side taking potshots at each other.

Yesterday, Sabah DAP advisor Hiew King Cheu gave his arch-rival SAPP president Yong Teck Lee an ultimatum.

Said Hiew: “He (Yong) should prove his allegations against me. He should apologize to me and Sabah DAP publicly in the newspapers. If not, I’m going to sue him for defamation.”

Hiew, who is also Kota Kinabalu MP was responding to Yong’s accusation that he had colluded with Umno to defeat him (Yong) in the Batu Sapi parliamentary by-election last year.

Yong had also alleged that Hiew had an interest in a controversial waterfront project in the Kota Kinabalu.

Hiew told reporters at a press conference here that Yong’s allegations were ‘pure fabrication.’

“The allegations are damaging to me and Sabah DAP as a whole. Yong is merely twisting facts and making wild accusation on the issues and events,” Hiew  said.

‘Yong has a motive’

Hiew believed Yong’s accusations were a calculated move aimed chiefly at discrediting and tarnishing his image and that of Sabah DAP.

“Yong has a purpose in putting out such a statement. He has a motive.

“His objective is to come to KK (Kota Kinabalu) to contest against me in the next GE.

“I challenge him to come to KK to contest against me in the KK MP seat and lets see whether the people of KK will support me, or him.

“As far as I know and as I’ve told the people of KK, I do things for the KK people, not for myself and my record is clean.

“But for Yong, it’s up to the people to judge him,” he said.

Hiew also said Sabah DAP is duty bound to safeguard the dignity, credibility and accountability of its leaders, especially after having put in a lot of hard work to rebuild Sabah DAP.

Yong should expose Umno

He said Yong and SAPP should aim their guns at Barisan Nasional and Umno instead of DAP.

“He (Yong) should concentrate on hammering Musa Aman (Chief Minister and Sabah BN chairman), (Abdullah) Badawi (former prime minister) or even (premier) Najib (Tun Razak).

“To us, he (Yong) is a good friend of Umno and I can prove that.

“He knows about the SAS (Saham Amanah Sabah) case, and he mentioned in his press statements that Umno people are involved.

“Yong Teck Lee knew all these while what’s going on with SAS and that Umno people are involved. He has forgotten that during that time I was with him in SAPP.

“If he knows Umno people are involved in this particular scandal, why is he not coming forward to expose his Umno friends or at least be man enough to report to the MACC.

“Is Yong worried of going to jail? I’m not saying he’s part of it (SAS controversy) but the way how he was putting it shows he knows all the details of where the RM300 million people’s money had gone to.

“SAS started with RM500 million now remaining with RM200 million.

“Where’s the RM300 million? Overnight deals, NBT, Sugarbun, you name it,” Hiew said.

‘Yong cannot run away’

Meanwhile, Sabah DAP chairman Jimmy Wong, who was also present, said Yong was in the BN at the time and therefore shared collective responsibility.

“He cannot run away. You accuse us of colluding with Umno but you have been sleeping with them for the past 14 years so, who is actually colluding with Umno?

“He even alleged that we went to Samsuddin’s (Samsuddin Yahya, the Sekong state assemblyman) house to have coffee with him and to collect money.

“The allegation was not only directed at me but also the whole party. It’s a personal attack,” added Wong.

Hiew said that he was astonished by the criticism as he had never attacked nor mentioned Yong’s name in his press statements in the past, adding that it was not his style.

“Did you people ever see me hammer Yong Teck Lee? No! I don’t, as I see no point doing that.

“He is an ex-CM, he was minister in many departments. He is also a learned person and a person with high standing in the Chinese community. Why should I hammer him?

“But this time we cannot tolerate it anymore as it’s way overboard. We are not going to accept it like that.

“We want to seek justice and the people will be the real judge of what Hiew King Cheu is and what my work is,” Hiew added.

Also present at the press conference were several top Sabah DAP leaders including Fred Fung, Edward Mujie, Jeffrey Kumin and Chan Fong Hin.

Source : FMT