KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Progressive Party deputy president Amdee Sidik yesterday felt that the so-called seat allocation talks with Parti Keadilan Rakyat were more of a “dictation than discussion”.
He said when PKR deputy-president Azmin Ali and vice president Tian Chua announced that the discussion with SAPP was closed, it looked as though they were giving the Sabah-based opposition an ultimatum to stay away from Pakatan Rakyat.
“We are then labelled unreasonable, if not stubborn. But, actually, SAPP has been deliberately responding only mildly on any unfriendly statements made in the media by fellow opposition in the past few weeks.
“The idea behind the silence was to avoid giving conflicting signals to Sabah voters. SAPP leaders have been accused of being arrogant and uncooperative but those who have been following the struggle of the party are unlikely to be perturbed by such remarks,” he said.
He said at the same time, SAPP leaders have been following through for the purpose of seeking ways to consolidate teamwork with both PKR and Sabah State Reform Party (Sabah Star), but stood firm in maintaining the principle of the struggle for ‘Sabah Autonomy’ with reference to Malaysian Agreement signed in 1963.
Earlier, SAPP Youth chief Edward Dagul had asked PR leaders to spell out how many seats PR wanted SAPP to field in the forthcoming general election. Amdee said the idea behind the question was to allow us to share what SAPP has lined up, their plans which had been in place for over three years, long before any other opposition parties’ existence.
“SAPP has been making statement after statement about fielding simple majority seats. We would field where we have candidates and infrastructure ready,” explained Amdee.
He said a couple of days ago, both Azmin and Tian Chua came out with their mathematical formula where of the 60 seats, it would be divided by six, which means opposition parties, namely PKR, Pertubuhan Pakatan Perubahan Sabah (PPPS), Angkatan Perubahan Sabah (APS), Democratic Action Party (SAP), Parti Islam SeMalaysia (Pas) and SAPP would each get 10 seats, leaving out Sabah Star.
“Now let’s see if this number is agreeable to the people of Sabah, especially since SAPP has been talking all along about state autonomy. Would such mathematical arrangement make sense to SAPP supporters?
“Let me recall my little experience watching this roller coaster kind of decision making, taking Sarawak as the case in hand, negotiation between Sarawak National Party (SNAP) and PR during the Sarawak State General Election in 2011. I was SAPP’s representative to observe SNAP and PR negotiation at a close distance.
“SNAP was proposing to field 27 seats mainly at the Iban majority area, but it was rejected by the same negotiator, Azmin. Instead, SNAPP was offered only three seats and later revised to four seats of the 71 total number of seats in the Sarawak state assembly … when we think about it, it means the negotiation failed.
“The result of the state general election showed that SNAP lost very badly with the 27 candidates fielded, while PKR, of the 49 fielded, they only won three. Baru Bian, who was designated to be the new chief minister won only by a whisker in the Bekakalan state seat.
“SNAP’s disaster was due to the lack of preparations; there was no party machinery, and in fact it was only reactivated after a long absence. The onslaught from all corners was unbearable for them,” he said.
Amde added that SAPP has to be careful at all times, for fear of falling into the trap.
“We realised that it was not really a negotiation, but rather dictation, whether you are in or out.
“Sabahans have been informed with SAPP’s eight point declarations and autonomy. It is the party’s threshold struggle which cannot be traded with anything less,” said Amdee.