Kota Kinabalu: Sabah DAP said SAPP President Datuk Yong Teck Lee acted like a hooligan by storming into the DAP ceramah at Foh Sang and creating a scene, Wednesday night.Sabah DAP Election Director Fred Fung said what Yong did was tantamount to rioting as he also brought along a group of men. "Yong should be ashamed of himself for such act of gangsterism.
"As a former Barisan Nasional Chief Minister and veteran politician, he should know better than misbehave. It has been the practice all this while that opposing political parties do not intrude into each other's ceramahs or events and it should be kept that way.
"Luckily, nothing untoward happened. It may have turned into a free-for-all," said Fung, who is also Sabah DAP Deputy Chairman. Fung advised Yong to quit politics if he could take what was said during ceramahs by opposing parties such as Pakatan Rakyat or BN.
"DAP never intruded or stormed into others' ceramahs despite being bashed almost every night by opponents, including SAPP," he said, adding that police should take a serious view of what happened.
He said the Election Commission (EC) should also seriously take note of Yong's behaviour as a candidate in the coming election.
Explaining his version, Chong Eng Leong (State PKR Security, Immigration & Electoral Reforms Bureau Chief) said he invited Yong to take a seat when the latter confronted him
after he had delivered his talk on Sabah's infamous Project IC dubbed Project Mahathir.
He said Yong questioned why he accused him (Yong) of giving out ICs to foreigners.
However, Chong said he did not say such a thing in his talk.
"I didn't say you gave out ICs. What I said was that you (Yong) knew about the Project IC. That's all," Dr Chong said he told him.
According to him, Yong then repeatedly challenged him to go on stage and clarify that he (Yong) was not involved in issuing ICs to foreigners but the doctor maintained he never said that.
As the argument continued, Dr Chong reminded Yong about the article published in 1992 in Daily Express in which he (Yong) stated that 500,000 foreigners in Sabah had obtained ICs, and which he (Dr Chong) had reproduced it (article) in court during the 1999 Likas Election Petition.
Former Member of Parliament for Kota Kinabalu, Datuk Philip Yong Chiew Lip, who accompanied Yong, persisted in asking for three minutes for Yong to debate on the Project IC issue. But the organisers ignored him.
There were tense moments as Yong's supporters chanted "Debate, Debate, Debate, We are Sabahans" while some people in the crowd shouted "Vote for DAP".
The organisers tried to diffuse the situation by getting youths to perform Psy's Gangnam-style dance while waiting for Yong to make his exit but he refused to budge from his seat.
DAP candidate for Luyang, Dr Hiew King Cheu said Yong's disturbance angered the crowd. "I think he asked for it.
Insulting, he had asked for a 10-minute debate with DAP but I refused. I wouldn't give him even one second," he said.
Police personnel arrived at the scene after 9.30pm to control the crowd.
It was only about 9.45pm that Yong and his group left. City Police Chief, ACP Jauteh Dikun, when contacted Thursday, said his men were there for normal monitoring.
"Both SAPP and DAP were given permits for their respective ceramah.
Since gatherings of this nature are big and attract attention, our men were there to make sure no untoward incident happened," he said.
When asked whether police were there to escort Yong out, he said: "No, a ceramah is open to the public.
Anybody can go."
