SAPP sticking to no-confidence stand

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) is sticking to its stand of supporting any motion of no confidence against Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Party secretary-general Datuk Richard Yong said this was the gist of the party’s response to a show cause letter issued to it by the Barisan Nasional.

“In our letter of reply we also asked the Barisan leadership to not just look at our no confidence stand but to examine the reasons behind it,” he said yesterday.

He said appended to the reply letter signed by him was a copy of the party’s eight-point declaration endorsed by the SAPP supreme council last month.

Among others, the declaration sought for Sabah to have political autonomy, an increase of the state's share of oil royalties to 20%, the return of the Federal Territory of Labuan to state jurisdiction and for Sabah to be governed as a special region.

Yong said the five-paragraph reply letter signed by him and a copy of the declaration was sent via facsimile to the Barisan headquarters in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday and followed up with the original copy despatched via courier.

On reports quoting SAPP deputy president Datuk Raymond Tan as denying that the party was sticking to its no confidence stand, he said: “We are not prepared to respond to him in public.”