PKR wants Sapp in Pakatan’s fold

Azmin Ali has set his first task as the newly-appointed Sabah PKR chief – to bring the Sabah Peoples Progressive Party (Sapp) into the fold of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

However, he refused to set a deadline for it to happen but said it would be soon.

“I am not going to disclose the time and the date to meet with Sapp leaders on the question of forging a united front against the Barisan Nasional. But it is going to be very soon,” said Azmin last night on his maiden two-day visit to Sabah as PKR state chief.

“I think Sapp should be part of the opposition coalition to prepare for the next general election. I will be in Sabah every three weeks from now on.”

Azmin, who is member of parliament for Gombak and state assemblyperson for Bukit Antarabangsa – both in Selangor – conceded that Pakatan has yet to broach the subject with Sapp since Sept 17 last year.

The renegade Sabah party quit the ruling BN coalition on that day expressing no confidence in the Putrajaya leadership and citing a long list of local grievances.

DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang, who was present in Kota Kinabalu on the day of the pullout, generally refers to Sapp as a member of the Pakatan Plus.

Sapp chief Yong Teck Lee has since admitted several times that he has no objection to Pakatan viewing his party in this manner.

Azmin however said he wanted to go beyond the Pakatan Plus relationship with Sapp.

“Otherwise, there’s no way we can make it. I think that we have learned our lesson in the last general election and we should not repeat the same blunder,” said Azmin. “Our friends, the DAP in Semenanjung (Peninsular), have acknowledged that we have to stick to this principle.”

United opposition front crucial

Azmin reiterated that the mandate given to him was to work with Sabah opposition leaders to bring about a common front for the next general election, due in three or four years’s time.

He disclosed that Sabah DAP has already submitted a wish-list where they have identified the seats they had a fighting chance in the polls. This would be discussed with all PKR division heads in Sabah “to avoid three-cornered fights in the state”.

Kota Kinabalu MP Hiew King Cheu had indicated in recent days that his party would want to contest at least half the seats in Sabah, both parliamentary and state.

When asked about a role for Sapp, he responded: “Well, they are not in Pakatan.” He claimed the independent party would do well in the seats they had identified “as we have already set up service centres there and were working hard to serve the people”.

Sapp information chief Chong Pit Fah, who was also present at the informal gathering of politicians and journalists at the Damai Plaza in Kota Kinabalu, refused to be drawn into a comment on the matter.

“He (Hiew) talks so big here … half the seats? Can he win? If not for us, he would not have won his KK seat. We understand that he hardly opens his mouth in Parliament.”

The Damai Plaza open-air eateries are a favourite haunt in the city for the latest along the political grapevine.

Hiew later explained that he “preferred to work quietly behind the scenes and get things done and not simply scream his head off in Parliament just to get into the newspapers the next day”.

Azmin plays down in-fighting

Elaborating along the same lines, Azmin denied that there was any in-fighting within Sabah PKR or the opposition ranks in the state. He disagreed with suggestions that his appointment provided the clearest evidence.

“It really depends how you look at it. If you look at Utusan Malaysia and all the mainstream media controlled by BN, you will get a distorted picture, a negative one,” said Azmin.

“In Sabah PKR for example, we do have our differences as in any party, but they are not serious enough to cause a party split or prevent us from working together or with the other opposition parties.”

Azmin suggested that those who want to dispute his appointment as the Sabah PKR chief first ask Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak the rationale behind the appointment of Shafie Apdal, a Sabahan, as Kedah Umno and BN chief.

“Does this mean that they don’t trust a Kedahan or someone from the peninsular?” asked Azmin. “At the end of the day, when it comes to the general election, all PKR candidates in Sabah will be from the state itself. That’s what really counts.”

Several Sapp leaders declined to give an immediate response to Azmin’s remarks.

Joe Fernandez, Mkini