Yong and deputy at odds over no-confidence motion - The Star

By Muguntan Vanar and Ruben Sario

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Progressive Party is under threat of snapping from a fracture between the party boss Datuk Yong Teck Lee and his deputy Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah.

This emerged after a highly charged five-hour supreme council meeting yesterday when Yong obtained a consensus on the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the party made no decision on pulling out of Barisan Nasional.

Disputing what Yong told a packed press conference at the party headquarters crowded by members, Tan, immediately after the meeting, said the supreme council was split over the motion.

Tan said he and party youth chief Au Kam Wah had opposed the motion and they were supported by some of the 29 members of the supreme council present. (The council has 35 members).

He also disputed Yong’s contention that no decision was made for SAPP to pull out from Barisan.

“The consensus among us is to stay in Barisan,” said Tan, a Deputy Chief Minister who is seen as heading a Sandakan rebellion against Yong in the 14-year-old party which teamed up with Umno and other Barisan components in 1994, leading to the ouster of Parti Bersatu Sabah.

[More at http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/21/nation/21618835&sec=nation]