Sabah DAP totally agrees with Anwar’s comment that each party should not demand too much during seat negotiations.

Queville To, FMT

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah DAP has urged Sabah opposition parties, Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) in particular, to respect Pakatan Rakyat leader Anwar Ibrahim’s advise to stop attacking each other in the midst of seat negotiation efforts.

“Sabah DAP could not agree more with the advise of Anwar, that it is a matter of principle that all parties must not attack in the midst of negotiations.  Therefore, we respect the call by Anwar to stop the spat between DAP and SAPP,” said its publicity secretary Chan Foong Hin.

But Chan, while advising SAPP to respect Anwar’s advise and to stop attacking DAP, did not let up on his criticism of the Sabah opposition party.

“It is most regrettable that if SAPP continues to repeat their allegations towards DAP such as that we are ‘prepared to form the government with Umno’, ‘attempts to sabotage the PR – SAPP negotiations’ etc. It is high time also for SAPP cyber troopers to stop their labelling DAP Sabah as “biaDAP” and “Malayan Party”. The first rule of seat negotiations is respecting each other.

“Let us all go back to the negotiation table. Sabah DAP respects  Anwar’s advise to stop the spat between us and SAPP. This statement is the concluding remarks of all the unhappiness and uneasiness created by the spat in the year of 2012. We look forward for a better year of 2013, when all the oppositions can stay united to work for a change of government by upholding the principle of equality and respect to each other. Any party attempt(ing) to dominate the seats is beyond compromised,” he said.

He maintained that SAPP’s demand for half of the state seats is the root cause of “little progress” achieved in the seat negotiations among the opposition parties.

Chan demanded SAPP put aside all their political rhetoric such as “state party must control half of the state seats in order to uphold state autonomy” if they really want to continue with seat negotiations to achieve the ultimate goal of ‘one to one fight’ between the opposition and the Barisan Nasional.

He was responding to Anwar’s recent statement that “little progress had been made” in the Pakatan-SAPP seat negotiations.

“Anwar’s statement totally contradicted SAPP’s statement the day before, which said that Pakatan- SAPP negotiations were almost completed,” he said.

“Furthermore, it is evident that Pakatan never agreed with the suggestion by SAPP that “local parties contest the majority of the state seats while Pakatan focuses on parliamentary seats,” Chan noted.

Nonetheless, he stressed that Sabah DAP totally agrees with Anwar’s comment that each party should not demand too much during seat negotiations.

Chan said such comment was in line with Sabah DAP’s principle of equality adopted in seat negotiations, that no single party should be bigger than anyone.