The Day After (the SAPP Bombshell)

24 hours have passed since SAPP president Yong Teck Lee dropped that bombshell at the press conference held at his party's headquarters at Luyang in Kota Kinabalu yesterday.

As I have said in my earlier postings, not only do Malaysians in general and Sabahans in particular know about it by now, they are talking about it, wondering what would happen next. This is because the stakes are high. What Yong did may change the political landscape of the country in the coming weeks. Either that, or he might fail in what he set out to do, and leave SAPP in the limbo until the next election or, as the de facto Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim insists, until September 16, the date by which he had set for his Pakatan Rakat coalition to take over the Federal Government from BN.

If at 2.00pm yesterday the entire Sabah's attention was focused on the press conference at the SAPP headquarters, today the entire Malaysia's attention is focused on the BN supreme council meeting at the UMNO headquarters building in Kuala Lumpur at 2.30pm; chaired by none other than the PM himself.. SAPP, being one of the 14 component parties of BN, would normally be sending 3 reps to such meetings. But not today, and the reason is obvious. "We are not invited," says SAPP and this was confirmed by BN secretary-general Tengku Adnan.

The agenda on today's meeting? Understood - what to do with SAPP. Will the party be sacked from BN? We will know in about an hour or two's time. But the answer will almost certainly be yes. SAPP's 'enemies' within BN wouldn't want to miss this golden opportunity to get rid of the party from BN for good. It is an open secret that SAPP had been at logger heads with fellow components PBS and LDP over the last few years.

At the first post-mortem meeting of the BN supreme council held after the March 8 election, LDP and PBS pointed a finger at a party from Sabah for back-stabbing them in the election. When asked by reporters in Sabah days later who the guilty party was, LDP president VK Liew shrewdly responded: "I forgot, go and ask (PBS president) Datuk Pairin." It is believed that the party referred to was SAPP. If true, that perhaps helps to explain why the PM was reluctant to appoint Yong a full Federal Minister through the Senatorship as widely speculated.(Yong did not contest any MP seat).

Liew himself and another component party president, Joseph Kurup of PBRS were only made Deputy Ministers after the recent election. This was perhaps another consideration of Pak Lah, plus the fact that the Chinese quota of the Deputy Chief Ministersip in the State Cabinet already went to SAPP through Datuk Raymond Tan who, by the way, was absent at yesterday's press conference. Tan is Yong's No. 2 in the party, being Deputy President.

Yong said at yesterday's conference that the SAPP supreme council will meet tomorrow (Friday) to discuss the party's next move including the possibility of leaving the BN. At the rate things are going, that perhaps would not be necessary. UMNO vice president Mohd Ali Rustam who is currently in USA on official duty said he had written a letter to the party headquarters recommending that the meeting today discuss the sacking of SAPP.

Meanwhile, PBS deputy president Dr Maximus Ongkili who is with Ali in America also deplored SAPP's action, describing it as "untimely" and "unkind". PBS president Joseph Pairin Kitingan, speaking to reporters before leaving for KL to attend the meeting, also condemed SAPP's action. PBS should know better and would think twice before following SAPP's move.

PBS led by Kadazandusun leader Pairin left BN a few days before polling day in the 1990 Malaysian election to throw their weight behind Gagasan Rakyat led by Semangat 46 president Tengku Razaleigh who is now, ironically, tying to unseat Pak Lah as UMNO president for a second time. But PBS lost the gamble - BN won and Gagasan lost. This turned PBS into the opposition at the federal level although it was the ruling party at the state level. PBS managed to get back into BN in 2002 when Chong Kah Kiat was Sabah Chief Minister and Dr Mahathir the Malaysian Prime Minister. To Kah Kiat and Mahathir, I salute you for this. You have big hearts. Chong and Pairin were colleagues during Berjaya time when Harris Salleh was Chief Minister. Chong was Assistant Minister to Harris while Pairin was a Cabinet Minister until he was forced to resign. Pairin later formed PBS which toppled Berjaya.

But it is not as if Yong would not expect sacking from BN. He said yesterday that SAPP was prepared to face any consequence. From the way he spoke, it seems there is no love lost and that he is going for broke.

"Sacking by BN is exactly what SAPP wants, so Sabahans can't say that they jumped or, more famously in Sabah, had become frogs. We were sacked, we didn't jump," an observer pointed out.

Yong also said yesterday that the next 48 hours (24 left) would be crucial. I can't agree with him more. It is indeed crucial. So far no component party or BN MP has come out in support of SAPP's action, not even the outspoken UMNO MPs Anifah Aman and Ghapur Salleh who both declined a Deputy Ministership offered by the PM. Not even MPs from PBS and UPKO, both of which were speculated by The Sun newspaper a few days go as likely to follow SAPP's move. By now too, it has become clear that the chances of SAPP or any Opposition MP moving a motion of no-confidence against the PM on Monday (or for that matter for the entire duration of the next Parliament sitting) are becoming slimer and slimer. Never mind the sacking from BN. That would be academic and makes no difference to SAPP.

OK folks, time to watch the 5pm RTM 1 TV news and surf the Net for the latest. The BN meeting should be ending any time now. See you tonite for more.