Kota Kinabalu: An activist here said SAPP’s quick defence of Usno at being advised to stop demanding seats in the coming State polls or leave the ruling GRS suggests it fears not being entertained if it makes similar demands.
“Earlier, SAPP was told off by Perikatan Nasional for having a leg in both the federal opposition coalition as well as the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah state coalition.
“It finally left when given an ultimatum by PN,” said Lau Seng Kiat.
window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []};googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.defineSlot('/22826383987/dailyexpress_inline', [1, 1], 'gpt-passback').addService(googletag.pubads());googletag.enableServices();googletag.display('gpt-passback');});“Both Usno and SAPP should eat humble pie and be grateful that their presidents and some of their members are enjoying positions despite being totally rejected in the last Sabah election,” he said.
“If I were Tan Sri Pandikar (Usno President and Yong, I would be happy with being paid handsomely as TAED Chairman and POIC Chairman-cum-Nominated Assemblyman, respectively, than rock the GRS boat.
“Social media is abuzz that the head of one Sabah GLC had the cheek to order a RM1million Land Rover the moment he was appointed to the top post. I hope it is not one of them,” he said.
Both these leaders should realise that GRS cannot afford to lose by being nice and allocate seats to components that may not stand a chance.
“If both SAPP and Usno were rejected many times over before, what makes them so sure that things will be different this time around? Both parties are seen as weak components in GRS and fighting for political survival. It would be risky for the coalition to allocate them seats which they cannot deliver.
“In fact, SAPP was luckier than Usno. Some SAPP leaders were appointed as Deputy State Speaker, councillors and community leaders, among others” he said.
“They should be grateful to Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor for being magnanimous to all components, big or small.
“The two Gagasan Rakyat deputy divisional leaders who advised Usno were voicing their opinions. It is unwise to look down on junior leaders. It was Pandikar who started it.
“The last straw was when Pandikar accused the GRS leadership of belittling Usno and threatened that it may go solo.
“As for Yong, everyone knows his party lost every single election after pulling out from BN during the administration of the late Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.”
Earlier, Yong advised junior divisional leaders of Gagasan Rakyat in Kiulu and Bingkor to refrain from belittling Usno, a fellow GRS component.
He reminded Gagasan’s younger leaders of Sabah’s political past, cautioning that arrogance within coalition ranks could lead to disastrous outcomes.
“Gagasan is not as strong as Umno was before its fall in 2018. Likewise, GRS today is not as dominant as Barisan Nasional was.
“Some of our junior leaders speak and act as though they are leading a coalition as powerful as Umno in its heyday,” said Yong, who is also Deputy Chairman of GRS.
He recalled that in 2006, Umno publicly challenged Upko, then a BN component, to leave the coalition after it opposed the relocation of squatters from Putatan to Kg Maang in Penampang.
The issue was deeply sensitive, with major demographic implications. “But when Upko left BN in 2018, the coalition collapsed,” he said.
Yong also cited the 1984 expulsion of Usno from BN over its opposition to the federalisation of Labuan. Just one year later, in the 1985 Sabah state election, BN’s then-leading component, Berjaya, lost.
Yong urged Gagasan’s youth leaders to emulate the inclusive leadership style of GRS Chairman and Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor, and focus on strengthening GRS from within.
