Single strong voice cannot do anything, Chan tells Yong
KOTA KINABALU: Now is the time to vote for a change in government and not merely for a single strong voice in parliament, DAP Sabah candidate for Kota Kinabalu parliamentary seat, Chan Foong Hin, tells former Chief Minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee.
Chan said DAP’s voice had always been strong in the state legislative assemblies and parliament but in order to make real changes happen, WarisanDAP-PKR needed to become the new government.
“GST, can we abolish it? Just by acting as a strong voice for the people in Dewan Rakyat? Cannot. You must be in power,” said Chan during a press conference at the DAP Sabah headquarters here yesterday.
“That is why it is very important for this round, it’s not about choosing a strong voice for Sabahans, but it’s about who can be a strong voice and who can be the government. So that is our difference with him,” said Chan at a press conference here yesterday.
In a May 6 statement, the SAPP president had said he would make the best elected Kota Kinabalu MP among the three 14th general election (GE14) contenders to fight for Sabahans’ rights.
“I would like to advise him to let us establish a change of government first before we fight and return whatever Sabah deserves. It is not the time to talk about becoming a strong voice or not because he promised he wanted to bring up the issue of Territorial Sea Act 2012 in parliament,” said Chan.
“Sarawak DAP had raised it up in the Sarawak state legislative assembly and we have also raised up the issue in parliament but what can we do?
“This is the time to walk the talk and we need to change it, we need to implement it, we need to implement the Malaysia Agreement 1963 not only becoming the strong voice and saying it in parliament.
“What is the use of one seat among 221? What can you do? So please Yong Teck Lee, you are a very senior politician. I always respect you but please become more mature for this round,” he said.
Yong had also alleged that Chan would not do any better than incumbent Kota Kinabalu MP Jimmy Wong as the latter would frequently be away from the Sabah capital city.
“Within one year, I need to move my whole family here. But then after the election, definitely we will continue to have a service centre, the Kota Kinabalu MP office and others here. This is nothing new, in fact, but being a politician these kinds of allegations about being missing from your area sometimes is a meaningless statement. The higher the position, the politician can’t be always in the area,” he said.
“He (Yong) has been missing in his area for the last five years. He blames Jimmy Wong and says he is missing in Kota Kinabalu but he (Yong) is also missing. He only came back recently,” said Chan.