Cracks widening in SAPP

KOTA KINABALU: Cracks are widening in the Sabah Progressive Party’s east coast bastion of Sandakan with branches folding up following the party’s decision to quit Barisan Nasional on Wednesday.
Fifteen out of 17 branches with hundreds of members in the Tanjong Papat state constituency of Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Raymond Tan closed down with branch chiefs unanimously wanting to remain within the Barisan bloc.
Tan, who quit SAPP after party chief Datuk Yong Teck Lee announced the party’s pulling out of the Barisan, held meetings with the “dissenting” branch leaders.
The 49-year-old founder member of SAPP who declared himself a “Barisan independent” after quitting the party, said the branch leaders did not support the supreme council’s decision to withdraw from Barisan.
“I am now thinking of forming Barisan independent branches until we decide our next move,” Tan said, saying that forming a new party remained an option.
He expressed surprise over news reports that he intended to take over Parti Setia.
“I don’t even know who the Parti Setia president is and I don’t think he knows me,” he said in response to news reports that he and former Liberal Democratic Party assemblyman Datuk Liew Yun Fah were consulting each other in taking over or forming a new party.
Liew, a former minister, quit the LDP after he was dropped as a candidate in the March 2008 general election.
Tan claimed he was still getting feedback from the grassroots who were confused over the supreme council decision.
He is scheduled to meet Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman on Monday when he will personally tender his resignation from the state Cabinet following the SAPP pullout.
Another Sandakan SAPP leader Au Kam Wah, the Elopura assemblyman, has quit the party and has decided to stay as a Barisan independent with no immediate plans to join Tan or any other party.

tunku : did yong teck lee took the decision to quit bn without getting the full support from sapp supporters? i guess he took the action with the support from the minority group in the party.may be he got very good offer from anwar, he just waiting to take the next step but 16th september had passed, he will have to wait again.he is confused actually, he don't know whether he can trust anwar or not, otherwise he had joined pakatan.