Sabah Yong on the landslide victory of Pakatan Rakyat In Permatang Pauh

Kota Kinabalu, August 27, 2008: SAPP President Datuk Yong Teck Lee on the landslide victory of PKR Advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at the Permatang Pauh by-election 26 August 2008

1. The land slide victory of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim augurs well for non-racial politics in Malaysia. The rejection of racial politics shown in the March general elections has been repeated resoundingly by the voters of Permatang Pauh of whom 69% are Malays.

2. But the BN leadership, especially UMNO, never learn. Instead of strengthening national unity among the people, UMNO tried desperately to whip up racial emotions on the NEP issue by mob demonstrations in Penang immediately after the elections. The orchestrating of the student demonstrations at UiTM by UMNO this month, the inflammatory speeches of their MPs in Parliament and racial instigation against SAPP MPs over the no confidence motion in June all prove that the BN and UMNO are still trapped in the old mind set of racial compartmentalization of Malaysian politics.

3. In fact, after the March general elections, both the PM and DPM had declared that the BN would conduct independent studies on the losses suffered by the BN and why people were rejecting BN. Several high level BN committees were even formed to ¡§re-brand BN¡¨.

4. But instead of changing for the better with people-friendly policies, the BN government played around with fuel prices at the whims and fancies of the Prime Minister inflicting suffering on the ordinary people. High level corruption continues unabated. And according to news reports quoting senior UMNO leaders, this year¡¦s UMNO party divisional and branch elections are the dirtiest and most corrupted by money politics ever in the history of UMNO.

5. When SAPP first declared no confidence in the PM, almost all the BN component parties chose to condemn SAPP instead of solving the issues affecting the people raised by SAPP. SAPP reminds the BN component parties to join the SAPP's move of no confidence in the PM so as to effect change for the better in the country. SAPP now calls on the people in Malaysia, especially in Sabah and Sarawak, to be ready for change.

Issued by SAPP HQ