Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) doubts that 2,000 members in its Tanjung Papat division resigned en-bloc on Saturday as claimed.
SAPP Assistant Secretary General Foo Fook Ming said the party central committee had yet to receive any official letter from members and leaders who claimed to have left the party since it withdrew from Barisan Nasional (BN) on Sept. 17.
He said so far only two resignation letters, namely from its Youth Movement Chief Au Kam Wah and Supreme Council member Jimmy Wong, were received.
"As the Assistant Secretary General, I can confirm that there are only 1,791 officially recorded members in Tanjung Papat division. So where are the extra members from? Are they phantoms?" he asked.
He urged those who intended to quit the party, including its "rebellious Deputy President" Datuk Raymond Tan, to be sincere with their intention and do it officially if they no longer subscribed to SAPP's struggles.
He said while the party respects the decision of those who want to leave, they should make it official, in line with the party's rules and regulations.
He stressed that as far as he knew, many of the members in Sandakan had no intention of leaving SAPP.
Foo also said it was unlikely the people would disagree with SAPP's struggles as spelt out in its "8-point declaration", namely good governance and non-racial politics, political autonomy for Sabah, 20 per cent oil royalty, return of Labuan, review of unfair laws and detrimental policies, Borneonisation of the Federal civil service, solution to the illegal immigrants issue and redress economic and social imbalances.
He said the recent arrest of a Sin Chew journalist under ISA contradicted Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's advice to the media to always report the truth.
"The journalist did just that but was arrested," he said.
He refuted Tan's allegations that he had been isolated by SAPP, saying Tan, Wong and Au were invited to all the Supreme Council meetings held from June 18 to Sept 17 and Tan even attended all, including the last meeting on Sept. 17.
SAPP regrets the action of its former Youth Chief-cum-Elopura Assemblyman Au Kam Wah for removing the Party's signboard from its Sandakan Constituency Liaison Committee (CLC) office, a day after he tendered his resignation.
Foo described Au's action as ungrateful and ungentlemanly and with malicious intent. "What does he want to prove?" he asked.
He further argued that since Au has resigned from SAPP he should stop interfering with party matters and is not permitted to enter the CLC office anymore.
"As a non member he (Au) has no right to remove the signboard. He can only ask the SAPP officers to do so," Foo said, while reminding Au that the office legally belonged to SAPP as it has a tenancy agreement until 2022.
"We have proof of the tenancy which was signed on February 26, 2002 and witnessed by Au Kam Wah himself. So he cannot deny that he does not know the office belongs to SAPP," Foo pointed out.
22/09/08
PEOPLE'S POWER
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