Batu Sapi PKR leader favours SAPP to take on BN

Kota Kinabalu,15 October, 2010: The Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Batu Sapi division chief said the opposition should let the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) take on the Barisan Nasional in the upcoming Batu Sapi by-election.

"I encourage SAPP to field their candidate in Batu Sapi and I am willing to help the SAPP candidate ... after reading the SAPP constitution and manifesto, I believe the bumiputera in Sabah actually have a much better future in SAPP," said Datuk Nahalan Damsal, a former Assemblyman for the area.

The Batu Sapi parliamentary seat was left vacant following the tragic death of its elected representative, Datuk Edmund Chong Ket Wah, in a road accident last Saturday.

Nahalan spoke at a press conference at Kinabalu Club in Lido, Thursday. SAPP Information Chief, Chong Pit Fah, was among those present.

The former Batu Sapi Assemblyman has been in politics for more than 35 years.

He was a State Minister in the PBS Government and ex-Assistant Minister under Barisan Nasional Government era.

He expects a three-cornered fight in the by-election, the other opposition party being Pakatan Rakyat. However, he said, except for SAPP, the rest were not local-based.

Nahalan said when SAPP President Datuk Yong Teck Lee was Chief Minister, he helped the bumiputeras a lot especially in the issuance of Native Titles."

In Batu Sapi, itself, he said Yong approved the reclamation of 20 acres for the construction of housing for some 300 bumiputera families.

But, regretfully, subsequent to the approval and gazettement of the 20 acres, the BN Government failed to build the promised homes for the families who he later resettled at another location.

"The land is still there until now but only covered by grass, although everything had been prepared for the construction of homes," he said.

Nahalan also asked the people of Sabah to reflect on why the State become among the poorest in the country only after the BN took over the State Government, but never during the Usno, Berjaya and PBS eras.

"We hear about so much money made including recently by our oil palm industry, oil resources, tourism and so on, but Sabah is remained as the poorest state," he said.