BN: No action against Sapp for now
Malaysiakini.com
Jun 19, 2008

Barisan Nasional supreme council today resolved not to take action against Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) until it gets an "official statement" from the party for its planned
MCPX
no-confidence vote against the prime minister.

tengku adnan mansor 041007BN secretary-general Tengku Adnan Mansor said this today on behalf of all 13 component party members, minus Sapp which was not invited to the emergency meeting.

After the two-and-a-half-hour-long meeting at the Putra World Trade Centre, Tengku Adnan read out the BN supreme council's decision to the media.

"All the BN component parties condemn Yong Teck Lee's (Sapp president) statement. His statement is unprincipled, unethical and is against BN's beliefs and spirit of unity.

"All the component parties also want Sapp supreme council to confirm or reject Yong's statement yesterday," said Tengku Adnan.

bn component parties seat breakdown 2008 190608Action would only be decided against Sapp after it's "official statement" pertaining Yong's statement, said the BN secretary-general.

Another decision reached at the meeting was for parliamentarians from all BN component parties to attend all parliamentary sessions.

"They must also follow BN's instructions and reject any no-confidence motions against the prime minister. All the component parties here also voiced their support Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as the prime minister of Malaysia," said Tengku Adnan.

When asked why Sapp was not invited to today's meeting, he said: "We did not invite them because we were going to discuss about them".

He said that BN component parties have been warned before not to air their grievances through the media but to bring it up at its supreme council meetings.

Representatives of all component parties were present at the meeting.

However, one notable absentee was Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who could not return on time from his overseas trip.

Also absent was PPP president M Kayveas and Upko chief Bernard Dompok, also believed to be overseas. However their representatives were at the meeting.

Sapp has done nothing wrong

Abdullah, who is also the BN chairperson, later told a press conference that the views expressed by Sapp yesterday were Yong's personal opinion.

abdullah sapp bn supreme council 190608"The president made a statement yesterday. But as far as I know this is not the party's stand," said the BN chief. "Hence, we've not decided to take any action against the party."

What the party intends to do with him is up to them, he added.

As for the Sapp MPs involved in yesterday's press conference - Dr Chua Soon Bui (Tawau) and Eric Enchin Majimbun (Sepanggar) - Abdullah said that no action will be taken against them as their actions were done outside the Parliament.

"If they did it (no-confidence motion) inside Parliament, we will have to take action as we have rules governing MPs' actions inside Parliament.

"We've done this before to one MIC MP and two MCA assemblypersons from Penang in the past."

MIC secretary-general S Sothinathan was suspended as a deputy minister for three months over his remarks during a parliamentary debate on the Crimea State Medical University (CSMU) issue in 2005.

Abdullah also denied that a show-cause letter will be given to Sapp as the party has done nothing wrong at the moment.

Yong offered special envoy post

Asked to explain his "Yong was too greedy" comment yesterday, Abdullah said the Sapp president was offered a special envoy position after the elections.

"When we were deciding on the election candidates for Sabah, he had already decided on his choice. But he also wanted to contest for a parliamentary post," said Abdullah.

"There were no more free seats and he wanted another party's seats. Naturally, this couldn't happen and he was unhappy over this.

yong teck lee and sapp"He wanted the Kota Kinabalu seat but that belonged to PBS, which was not going to make way."

After the elections, the matter of his position was discussed and he was looking forward to being made a senator, said Abdullah.

"After that, I told him that he will be made a special envoy for BIMP. This is a smaller regional development which involves Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

"He was to have roles in helping the promotion of trade, illegal immigration matters, border issues and other related concerns.

"He agreed and I started to take action (getting the King's consent etc)," said Abdullah.

After this was agreed, Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman was also informed of this matter and he accepted this arrangement, added Abdullah.

"He started acting strangely after that," said the prime minister.

"When I made some announcements in Sabah recently, he didn't turn up. I was told he was in Sandakan. And it looks like he was crafting other stories.

"He was telling a different story, so why would I want to meet him anymore," asked Abdullah.

"Now, we know what he wants. He seems to be more interested in what Anwar (Ibrahim) will offer him."

A Sapp split

Sapp's decision to move the motion of no-confidence against Abdullah does not appear to have the full support of the party's leadership.

This would have had a bearing in BN's decision not to take action against the party.

sapp sabah pc 180608 03Sapp deputy president Raymond Tan, who was conspicuously absent from the press conference yesterday when party president Yong made the announcement (photo), had said he was "confused and embarrassed" about Sapp's move.

He added that the party's supreme council was not consulted on the matter and blamed Yong of acting on his own.

"It is not proper for us to do it when Abdullah is the Barisan chairperson. It is disrespectful to the prime minister," he said. Tan is Sabah deputy chief minister and infrastructure minister.

Sapp's four state assemblypersons were also absent from the press conference yesterday.

Sapp will be holding its supreme council meeting tomorrow to decide whether it will stay in BN.

It is learnt that Yong has been able to convince at least four of the party's six elected representatives to back him.

They include two MPs and two state assemblypersons, including state assistant minister Melanie Chia.

The other two state assemblypersons, including Tan, are likely to break away if the party supreme council decides to pull out from BN.

Watch the 6-min video of the Barisan Nasional supreme council meeting here. 

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