Pairin served longer: SAPP

Published on Daily Express: Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Progressive Party youth chief Edward Dagul reminded Parti Bersatu Sabah Information Chief Datuk Johnny Mositun that SAPP President Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee only served two years as Chief Minister unlike PBS counterpart Tan Sri Pairin Kitingan's nine.
Mositun had asked what Yong had achieved when he was CM. Yong was also a senior Cabinet Minister under both the BN and PBS' tenures.

To this, Dagul questioned what PBS has to show to Sabahans despite its leaders being given positions upon rejoining the Barisan Nasional.
Dagul said Mositun either did not comprehend Yong's recent statement (on the 11 issues to be tackled by SAPP when it comes to power) or chose to be ignorant of the facts presented.
Yong had likened Pairin to being a "Pak Turut" to the Umno leadership.
Dagul said PBS was undeniably a formidable opposition in Sabah until it decided to rejoin BN.
"The excuse given by PBS leaders was to effectively rid Sabah of all problems plaguing the State.
"But have the problems really been solved? Have the leaders in Kuala Lumpur even bothered responding?"
Dagul recalled Pairin stating during the party's 24th Congress that the PTI issue must be resolved by 2012 and noted that Pairin stopped short of saying what he would do if it was not resolved by then.
"After the announcement of the NKRA was made by the current Prime Minister, there was an uproar when the newly-appointed Minister-in-charge of NKRA, Datuk Seri Idris Jala admitted that the PTI issue was not listed.

"It was deemed not important enough to be included in the Federal Government's list of priorities.
As an afterthought, the setting up of a new Special Laboratory was hastily announced with the sole intention to pacify the Sabahans but alas, to date, still no results," he said.
"This 'Mother of all Threats is attributed by many to be the main contributing factor in Sabah's abnormal population increase in the years 1970 to 2000 from 636,431 people in 1970 to 2,449,389 in the year 2000; or an increase of 285pc compared to the nation's increase of 113pc or even Sarawak's 106pc.
"This highly irregular upsurge has meant that the indigenous natives have been displaced as the majority community in Sabah."

Dagul said the continued silence by PBS leaders on this and other pertinent issues affecting especially the KDMs had left them feeling hopeless and abandoned.