KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) Fresident Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee on Wednesday challenged political activist Dr Chong Eng Leong to a public forum on the issues of illegal immigrants and phantom voters.
He said Dr Chong is sidestepping these key issues by repeatedly referring to the Likas election petition in 1999.
"He does not acknowledge that it was some of his close buddies who have been behind the phantom voters issue," he said in a statement.
Just like the Saham Amanah Sabah (SAS) issue, he said there is no closure and no end to it because the real culprits are not identified by critics like Dr Yee Moh Chai and other PBS leaders.
"They know which party is the cause of the SAS and phantom voters issue but still incessantly point their fingers at the wrong direction, towards me, because they want to protect their political masters and their (own) positions in government," he said.
In the 1999 Likas election petition, Yong said he presented documentary proof similar to the parliamentaly hansard records of his debates in Parliament on illegal immigrants and phantom voters issues.
He said there was not an ounce of evidence produced by Dr Chong on his involvement in phantom voters.
However, he said Dr Chong still tried to link him with phantom voters purportedly because he could not get over his defeat in the Likas election also because he chose to divert attenbion away from Umno towards him.
He said that he had remained silent on Dr Chong's diversionary tactic because he kept his focus on the main issue of illegals and phantom voters.
"But now it seems that Dr Chong himself has become a problern on the phantom voters issue becauso he is doing Umno a favour by diverting attention from Umno towards me," he said.
He said the fact is Dr Chong was defeated many times in the elections, from TanjongAru under PBS in 1986, Sembulan under BN-LDP (1994) and Likas in 1999 and 2001 (under PBS).
Dr Chong, he said talks as though, without the phantom voters, he would have won. In the 1999 state elections, Dr Chong as the PBS candidate then he said received lower votes of 5,855 in 1994 to 4,148 votes in 1999 and further reduced to 2,217 votes during the Likas by-election in 2001.
Yong said Dr Chong claiming his repeated losses were due to phantom voters alone, has trivialised the serious issue of phantom voters.
"Nobody can presume who the ‘phantom voters’ voted for in Likas in the 1999 state elections," he said. According to him, there were five candidates, including the main contender, then Bersekutu President Tan Sri Harris Mohd Salleh who garnered 3,576 votes.
As Dr Chong knows, Harris is the President of Yayasan Islam Sabah which has threatened to lodge police report against Dr Chong over the phantom voters issue.
"Harris has always been championing the cause of new citizens. This is Tan Sri Hartis right and we can disagree or agree," he said. However, he questioned Dr Chong's silence on Harris in the phantom voters issue.
"Why is Dr Chong silent on phantom votet's in Umno constituencies like Kawang and other areas? What is he trying to hide?" he said.
Because of the paramount issue of concern to the people of Sabah, Yong said is ever ready to have a public forum on the illegal immigrants issue and phantorn voters with Dr Chong and other parties, preferably after the Ramadan.
Daily Express
Thursday, 4 August 2011
Page 1-2
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