Yong backs Jeffrey over contentious comment

KOTA KINABALU: Maverick Sabah politician Jeffrey Kitingan has found an unlikely ally in former chief minister Yong Teck Lee over his provocative statement that appeared to question the loyalty Chinese community to Sabah.

Yong, an opposition leader like Kitingan, said the later was merely venting his frustration after seeing some of their compatriots in the opposition abandon the struggle for state autonomy and instead support the very group that had allowed Sabah to become subservient to Malaya.

“Considering that Dr. Jeffrey’s (Kitingan) decades long political struggle, including being detained under the cruel Internal Security Act for almost three years, has been based on Sabah rights, Sabahans should take Dr. Jeffrey’s (Kitingan) comments in the right context,” said Yong.

He said the Chinese community of Sabah should not be upset by his “out of the blue” comments last week that they seemed to be only interested in business and had no interest in protecting Sabah’s interests and autonomy.

Yong, who is also the president of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), observed that Kitingan’s comments were made in the context of the exodus of leaders from DAP.

In a crushing statement last week, the Bingkor assemblyman had painted the Chinese community in the state as indifferent to the political rights of the state and more focussed on business and personal glory.

He had pointed at how several senior Sabah DAP members had deserted the opposition and then sought to justify their actions as pragmatic despite just months earlier appealing for support for a fairer and autonomous Sabah.

“The ex-DAP leaders cannot simply give up the struggle. They should find a way to bring along the Chinese community to fight for Sabah’s rights and autonomy…” he said, adding that Sabah was their homeland, too, that all had helped to build.

Yong pointed out that the history of the state was illuminated by the struggles of people of all races who fought and sacrificed for Sabah including during the Japanese occupation in WWII when several atrocities were committed by the invaders.

The former chief minister said that since not much had been written about the Sabahans who took up arms against the brutal Japanese occupation of North Borneo, few knew about the sacrifices made by them.

But Yong, a Sabahan of Chinese origin, said he was convinced that Kitingan was well aware that his bid since the 1980s to win a deal for Sabah and bring the resource-rich state of par with the peninsula had been helped by Sabahans of all races.

Sabahans irrespective of religions and social backgrounds, he added, should remember their unique identity as it was crucial in determining the success of the struggle for autonomy and progress of the state.