Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) called on its "rebellious" Deputy President Datuk Raymond Tan to be more conscientious and honest on the rationale behind his decision to remain in Barisan Nasional (BN), instead of claiming he was ditched by party president, Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee.
In a statement, Friday, SAPP's new information chief Chong Pit Fah described Tan's statement as "ungrateful, mischievous and malicious". "He (Tan) is a senior State Cabinet Minister and a Deputy Chief Minister.
Why would SAPP ditch him? He shouldn't make this as an excuse for him to continue to remain in the Barisan Nasional. "I believed any right-thinking Sabahan could tell what is the true rationale for him to continue to remain in Barisan Nasional," he said, adding that all these years, Tan was the most "favoured and protected" by Yong among its leaders.
He cited for example it was Yong who insisted that Tan hold the party's Deputy President as well as the Deputy Chief Minister post. On Tan's remarks that he was isolated by the party, Chong countered that by right Tan should have been removed as Sandakan Zone chief as, since his appointment five years ago he "had failed to conduct any meeting for his division".
Chong also took a swipe at Tan for complaining to the media that at its recent Supreme Council meeting he found that his seat was removed just because he was late for 15 minutes. "If he (Tan) could get agitated over such a petty thing, then he must not say that there's no reason for SAPP to leave BN just because the party was not invited to the BN meeting for six consecutive times. He should have understood how the party felt about it," he said.
He explained that due to an overwhelming turnout on that day, the seats of all those who were late or absent were immediately occupied by those who came early, adding that as soon as Tan turned up, more than half an hour late, he was immediately given a seat.
Besides this, he also noted that contrary to their claims earlier, both Tan and its other Supreme Council member, Jimmy Wong in fact left the conference room only after the meeting and having sung the party song. He, nevertheless, wished Tan, Wong and its former Youth chief-cum-Elopura Assemblyman, Au Kam Wah, all the best in their future undertakings.
