Troubles beginning for Borneo's Yong?

When east Malaysia's Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) President Yong Teck Lee (pic) dropped the by-now famous bombshell at his press conference 2 days ago, the former Sabah Chief Minister did say that the next 48 hours would be crucial.

He was referring to whatever reactions that would come SAPP's way after he boldly declared Wednesday that his party's 2 Members of Parliament (MPs) would either propose or support a motion on a vote of no confidence on Malaysian prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when Parliament resumes sitting next week. Abdullah or fondly referred to as Pak Lah by Malaysians is also chairman of the ruling BN of which SAPP has been a member since 1994.

The past 48 hours have been crucial indeed. Yesterday, the BN supreme council held an emergency meeting in Kuala Lumpur to discuss SAPP's unprecedented move by a BN component party. The meeting however did not immediately sack SAPP from the coalition as widely speculated as those present believed that the decision was more Yong's antics rather than the party itself. The supreme council further decided that a final decision on SAPP would only be made after the party officially states its stand at the supreme council meeting of SAPP in Kota Kinablu in Borneo today.

The 48 hours mentioned by Yong is up, as of 2.30pm just now when SAPP is scheduled to hold another press conference to state the party's stand following its supreme council meeting which began at 10am this morning. At the time of my writing this post, I am still waiting for my Star news alert to which I subscribe. I have, for the past hour, been surfing the Net while at the same time have Bernama's TV news over Astro beside my desk. But so far nothing. It must have been a long and fiery meeting.

'Fiery' because Yong's No. 2 in the party, Raymond Tan has openly stated that he was not aware that Yong would announce the no-confidence motion plan. Neither was present at Wednesday's press conference. The deputy chief minster didn't sound too happy or supportive of Yong's plan either. Prior to this morning's meeting, Yong and Tan had a four-eyed meeting on the issue.

That I am still waiting for my sms alert, almost two hours after the scheduled press conference this afternoon, seems to suggest that Yong did not have a smooth ride at the supreme concil meeting. The Star news alert is normally efficient, barring technical fault on the part of the telco. On Wednesday, I received its news flash even before the news conference ended.

Mind you, if Yong fails to get the SAPP supreme council to endorse his Wednesday bombshell, by convention he would have to resign as party president because any failure would be tantamount to a vote of no confidence of sorts.

"If this happens, Yong would be getting a taste of his own medicine," commented a political observer, adding that Yong put the cart before the horse by calling for Wednesday's press conference first insteadof getting his supreme council's consensus first.

By that is not the only possible problem for Yong. Today, most Malaysian newspapers, both local and national, carried reports which alleged that when Yong was Chief Minister between 1996-98, he had ordered the payment of RM5 million profit from the sale of shares belonging to a state-owned company to his selected agents.

Although this was only an allegation made by a witness in a corruption trial involving another former minister which has yet to be proven, the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) of Malaysia certainly wasted no time. This morning, ACA said that it will investigate Yong on the allegation!

By Malaysian standard, it was rather fast and 'efficient' on the part of ACA. I can' help but wonder if Yong did not drop that bombshell, would ACA be that 'efficient'? No price for guessing.

Beginning of 'troubles' for Yong? With more on the way?.

(Note: Apart from the ACA, the Central or Federal Govenment of Malaysia also controls other politically sensitive or rather useful agencies like the Income Tax Board. The Government, through the Home Minister and the police, also has at its disposal the dreaded Internal Security Act (ISA) which allows detention without trial for 2 years, extendable! Detainees are kept at the Kamunting detention camp in Perak state. Among the 'alumni' of Kamunting are Malaysian opposition leaders like former Deputy Premier Anwar Ibahim, Lim Kit Siang and son (Guan Eng who is now Penang Chief Minister), Karpal Singh, Dr Tan Seng Giaw, and Sabah's Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, brother of former Chief Minister and PBS president Joseph Pairin. But it had not been opposition leaders who were detained all the time, even people from the government, journalists and activists joined the list.)