KOTA KINABALU: Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee (pic) and his Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) should just leave Perikatan Nasional if they are no longer happy in the coalition.
Sabah Perikatan Youth chief Muhammad Affan Jumahat issued the challenge to Yong as the latter continued to receive brickbats over his call for Perikatan to sit out the upcoming Sabah election.
Muhammad, who is also Sabah Bersatu Youth (Armada) chief, said Yong showed a lack of self-awareness when he made the remarks and also urged the Perikatan leadership to take action against SAPP over the matter.
“The statement by Yong is akin to him tidak mengukur baju di badan sendiri (not measuring the clothes on your own body),” he said, referring to a Malay idiom on self-reflection, in a statement on Tuesday (Sept 3).
“His statement is seen as disrespectful to the spirit of friendship in Perikatan, which SAPP is still part of, and he had no right to issue a statement on behalf of the coalition.
“If they are no longer interested in staying, then state your stand and get out of Perikatan,” he added.
PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang had on Monday (Sept 2) said the decision to contest in the Sabah polls was the Perikatan leadership’s to make and not Yong, who is a Perikatan deputy chairman.
SAPP is also part of the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition which helms the state government presently.
Yong, who is also one of the GRS deputy chairman, had during SAPP’s bi-annual delegates convention on Sunday (Sept 1) stated that Perikatan should stay out of the 17th Sabah election.
He said this was in line with his party’s stand of wanting peninsula-based parties not to contest in the polls.
According to Yong, SAPP will contest under the GRS banner, adding he had told the Perikatan leadership of the party’s stand for the coalition to stay out.
“Many are upset but this is SAPP’s stand,” he said.
