Party wants me to resign, says Tan

Source NST

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Progressive Party deputy president Datuk Raymond Tan will not tender his resignation from the party, saying that it was the party which did not want him.

"Why should I tender my resignation? It is not that I don't want to be with SAPP. It is SAPP which does not want me," he said, adding he had been unfairly treated by the party after registering his objection to the no-confidence vote in the prime minister on June 18.

However, he said if the party required him to send in a resignation letter, he had it ready.

Citing an example of unfair treatment, Tan said he was removed for no apparent reason as the party's Tanjung Papat central liaison committee and Sandakan zone chairman despite being deputy president.

"After the party made a stand that it had lost confidence in the prime minister in June, which I opposed, I was treated like an outsider although I am a senior leader of the party," he told the New Straits Times yesterday.

Another example, he said, was when he arrived 15 minutes late for the party's supreme council meeting on Sept 17, and had no place to sit as the chair usually reserved for him as deputy president was occupied.

"I had to ask for a place to sit. I was late before but my chair, file and name tag on the table were always there."

"You (in reference to SAPP president Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee) said you were badly treated by BN, but look at how you have been treating your colleague in the party," he said.

Describing himself as an "independent BN assemblyman", Tan said he would meet chief minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman on Monday to tender his resignation as deputy chief minister and minister of infrastructure development "as a matter of principle". He would then leave it to Musa to decide on his resignation.

Meanwhile, two founding members of SAPP yesterday handed in their resignation letters.

SAPP secretary-general Datuk Richard Yong confirmed receiving letters from Youth chief Au Kam Wah and vice-president Jimmy Wong, but would not say whether the resignations had been accepted.

Au, who is the assemblyman for Elopura, said he would serve as an independent despite offers from BN coalition parties and the opposition to join them.

Asked if he would be an independent aligned to BN, Au said it was not necessary for him to pledge such support, although he had won the seat on the coalition's ticket.

Wong said he decided to resign from the party as it had gone "against the grains of the BN concept, beliefs and principles that were the basis of its political ideology".