SANDAKAN – Former Chief Minister Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee has advised two Sabah DAP leaders to accept the ‘Datuk’ title graciously instead of expressing helplessness.
The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president expressed amusement at Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Foong Hin and Luyang assemblyman Phoong Jin Zhe’s statements that they did not apply for the Panglima Gemilang Darjah Kinabalu (PGDK) award, bearing the ‘Datuk’ title, but accepted it out of respect for the Sabah Governor.
Yong said that it appeared as though they believed the esteemed awards were forced upon them at the last minute.
He advised the Sabah DAP leaders to accept the awards graciously without worrying about the opinions of their counterparts in the Peninsular.
“After all, the prime minister has already expressed his sincere thanks to Chan, Phoong, and 10 other PH YBs for withdrawing the court case against the Federal Government on the 40% net revenue entitlement of Sabah,” Yong said in a statement today.
Yesterday, Chan admitted that he and Phoong were aware of breaching DAP’s rules by accepting the title, but they did so out of respect for the TYT and because their names were already published in the gazette.
They said that they had never submitted an application for the award and would leave the matter to be decided by the party.
Seemingly annoyed by Chan’s statement, Yong suggested that Chan and Phoong could have declined the awards by courteously explaining their reasons to the Sabah Chief Minister and the governor.
“I can speak from personal experience. The day before the TYT’s birthday in 2000, I informed the then Chief Minister, Tan Sri Osu Sukam, and the TYT, Tun Sakaran Dandai, that I declined the conferment of SPDK for reasons that I communicated to the CM and TYT. Consequently, my name was removed from the gazetted list, even though the Istana program book for the rehearsal had already been printed,” he explained.
Chan, a DAP Special Select Committee member, and Phoong, the Sabah DAP secretary, were among the 88 recipients of the second-highest award, the PGDK, presented in honour of the 70th official birthday of Yang di-Pertua Negeri Sabah Tun Juhar Mahiruddin.
This is not first time Sabah DAP members have accepted Datukships. Three leaders, namely Datuk Jimmy Wong, who is the former Sabah DAP advisor, the late Datuk Stephen Wong, who was the former Sabah DAP chairman, and Datuk Frankie Poon, the current Sabah DAP chairman, received their titles in 2018.
At that time, they indicated they would await a decision from the DAP central executive committee on whether to return the titles, but they have retained them to date.
DAP Secretary-General Anthony Loke recently said that the DAP central executive committee will determine the appropriate action against Chan and Phoong for breaching the party’s rules. – October 8, 2023
