PBS not out to split SAPP

The following from HERE is a reply from PBS to SAPP on the former's opening its door to SAPP Deputy President Datuk Raymond Tan should he no longer a SAPP member.


KOTA KINABALU: PBS is not attempting to disunite its fellow Barisan Nasional component party, Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), said its Information chief Johnny Mositun.

He defended his statement in saying that SAPP deputy president Datuk Raymond Tan could apply to join the party (PBS) if he opted to leave SAPP.

Johnny categorically denied SAPP president Datuk Yong Teck Lee’s charge that PBS was trying to cause a split within SAPP.

“I was only telling Raymond that his options are open and he can continue serving the people in BN through any of the nine component parties.

“That is not the same as asking Raymond to abandon SAPP,” Mositun said in a statement yesterday.

PBS would not do anything to cause friction between BN component parties because that would only benefit the opposition, “which has grown stronger and bolder after the 12th general election in March”, he said.

According to him, SAPP was now in an untenable situation because it had, while as a BN party, wanted to table a motion of no confidence against BN chairman and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

“It is therefore illogical for Yong to expect other BN components not to criticise SAPP’s action and if we look at the almost daily tirades against the federal government as well as component parties in Sabah, he is behaving as if SAPP is already out of the coalition when it is not,” Mositun pointed out.

Mositun said it was wrong for Yong to accuse PBS of being ‘unprincipled and abandoning its struggles’ for the people of Sabah.

PBS had not abandoned any of its objectives, but had changed its methods for achieving its objectives because the party believed in doing it through BN and not by opposing it, he said.

“We criticise the government, too, as we want the same things for Sabah as SAPP but not by resorting to posturing and heroics like Yong,” he added.

Mositun also said that Yong’s claim to the call by PBS deputy president Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili for SAPP to leave BN had amounted to capitulation by PBS to the federal capital’s “divide and rule” tactics was a distortion to the truth.

According to him, Yong could be excused for objecting to the language used by Maximus but the fact remained that the latter’s call for SAPP to leave BN was legitimate and justified.

“Yong should have realised that his words and actions could be likened to “running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.

“If SAPP wants to remain in BN, it should toe the party’s line and give Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi the time needed to resolve Sabah’s problems and not put obstacles in the way,” he said.