Kota Kinabalu: Attention of the huge crowd at a Pakatan Rakyat ceramah shifted from the speakers on stage to the front audience when SAPP President Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee walked over from his ceramah venue at the nearby Bornion Centre in Luyang, Wednesday night. There was shouting and whistles from Pakatan supporters when Yong occupied the front row alongside Sabah DAP Kota Kinabalu candidate Asst Sec Junz Wong, Dr Chong Eng Leong of PKR, Hiew King Cheu (DAP-Luyang candidate) and Fred Fung.
According to Yong, his presence there was to ask Dr Chong to repeat what he had allegedly said about Yong's involvement in the Project IC and phantom voters.
The debate between him and Dr Chong, he said, would clear the air over the allegations against him by the DAP. But organisers of the event did not allow it.
"Dr Chong said he only stated that Yong knew about it (Project IC and phantom voters).
He reiterated that he did not say I produced fake ICs or whether I was involved in it (issuance) because I did not have the power to issue ICs," Yong said.
The answer given by Dr Chong, Yong said, was a vindication of all the lies hurled against him about phantom votes in Likas and which was the subject of a court case on election billboards in 1999 that saw Yong being disqualified from contesting for five years.
"During my time, the leaders of the IC syndicate were detained under the ISA.
Many fake ICs were withdrawn by the Federal Government at that time and we had the regularisation programme whereby legitimate foreign workers would remain while illegal immigrants will be deported, which we did successfully," Yong said.
However, when he asked Fred Fung to allow him and Dr Chong to go on stage, Fung could not obtain permission from Hiew King Cheu, one of Sabah DAP's leaders.
He said after 20 or 30 minutes, Dr Chong wanted to get up to the stage to say something but two DAP bodyguards held him down, shouting at him not to get up.
"I suppose this is because of instructions from Hiew," he said. He then invited Dr Chong to come to SAPP's ceramah to present his talk there.
Yong said he had to bear the burden over issues such as the Saham Amanah Sabah (SAS) and phantom voters in Likas for more than 10 years after the 1999 election.
Yong said when he arrived at the talk, Dr Chong had just spoken and that the latter again repeated the allegation linking him to the Project IC. He claimed Dr Chong has been doing this for a number of years mainly because the latter could not accept the defeat in the Likas election in 1999.
"But I know he knows the truth because we went through the same election petition trial in 1999 until 2000 whereby the court has established that there were phantom voters due to the neglect of the Election Commission (EC).
"And all evidence not only exonerated other SAPP members and me but also further proved that myself and other SAPP leaders were not involved," he said.
He said SAPP lawyers questioned PBS witnesses at that time, among them Hassnar Ibrahim, to which Hassnar denied Yong and Datuk Philip Yong Chee Lip's involvement in the Project IC.
"We have reason to believe that Dr Chong bought the so-called documentary proof of fake ICs and phantom votes from Umno and that it was Umno people who faxed him the document in order to disqualify him."
Yet, he conveniently put the blame on me and covered up for Umno, he said.
"So, when I heard that he was giving a talk and stressing about the issue again, I fulfilled my promise that if they don't come (for the debate), I will go over (to them and push for the debate)," he said.
The first opportunity for the debate to take place was Sunday but the DAP needed permission from Kuala Lumpur.
"But since nobody from Kuala Lumpur is coming, Sabah DAP did not dare to take up the challenge," he said.
Nevertheless, Yong said SAPP is open for the debate anytime between now and midnight on May 4.
On Sabah DAP chief, Jimmy Wong, who is contesting the Kota Kinabalu Parliament seat, he said SAPP has no qualms about rendering its support to Jimmy.
"My stand is, even before the nomination, in constituencies where we are not contesting we will support the strongest opposition candidate.
"In this case, the Kota Kinabalu DAP candidate is stronger than the Star candidate, Liew Hock Leong @ Michael," he said.
On Junz's describing him as a man with no integrity, Yong said the former should ask his godfather about it.
