Source : Daily Express 19/05/2010
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) has no intention to vacate its seats to trigger by-elections in order to gain temporary allocations, carrots and sweets from the present Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
"In fact, SAPP is committed to fight for the rights and Sabah's development by way of gaining more autonomy so that we could cause a bigger, more meaningful and realistic change to the political landscape of Sabah," said its Information Chief, Chong Pit Fah, Tuesday.
He said there were much larger issues such as the loss of Block L and Block M oil fields concerning the sovereignty of the State, the deteriorating medical services, the threatening presence of a large population of illegal immigrants, land grabs, inflation, youth unemployment and piping away of the State's oil and gas, among others.
He said SAPP representatives in the State Assembly and Parliament would continue to raise any issue pertaining to Sabah and the people's interest.
"SAPP will not be distracted from its work with the challenge of Dr Edwin Bosi of Sabah DAP, whatever his real motive is," said Chong.
He was responding to Edwin's suggestion that SAPP relinquish all its seats to pave the way for by-elections so that instant development and funding could come immediately to their areas from the BN government.
Edwin said it had become a BN government trend to pump in a lot of cash and instant development to constituencies having a by-election such as the one in Hulu Selangor and Sibu.
Chong said in case Edwin was ignorant, Article 17 (5) of the Sabah Constitution provides that an elected member who resigns his membership of the legislative assembly shall be disqualified from contesting for five years from the date of resignation.
"However, if DAP wants to go on with their idea of resigning to cause by-elections and wish to vacate the Kota Kinabalu Parliament seat and Sri Tanjung State seat, it is really up to them," he said.
Sabah DAP's call for SAPP to relinquish its seats was the latest after several BN component parties, including Sepanggar Umno Chief, Jumat Idris, who challenged Sepanggar MP Datuk Eric Majimbun to vacate his seat for a fresh election.
"It seems these Kuala Lumpur-based parties are trying to belittle SAPP with these challenges.
My message is don't belittle SAPP's capabilities as a local-based party," said Chong.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Religion mistake in MyKad can be rectified
Source : daily Express 19/05/2010
Kota Belud: The Barisan Nasional (BN) sympathises with the people in Sabah who are facing difficulty because the religious status in their identity documents or MyKad was wrongly stated as Islam just because they had a "bin" or "binti" to their names.
Sabah BN Secretary, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said the problem could be easily resolved if those affected would refrain from getting help from the opposition.
He stressed that those who want to help this particular group should be genuinely sincere and strive to help them settle their problem instead of raising more confusion.
"We really sympathise with the issues involving our people in Sabah regarding mistakes in the identity documents issued by the National Registration Department (NRD)," he said.
At the same time, he assured that the BN is keen to settle the problem.
He was commenting on the statement by Sabah Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) deputy chairperson Christina Liew recently.
On Liew's statement that the NRD would simply state the person's religion as "Islam" if the name has a bin or binti, he said the NRD usually would refer to the documents of the applicants' parents when applying for birth certificate or when applying for the MyKad.
He said the NRD procedure is very clear, i.e., that a person would only be given Muslim status based on the documents of his or her parents at the time the application was made.
"Christina's statement is very confusingÉas a lawyer, she should know the procedure," he said.
Abdul Rahman said if the person wants to revert the Muslim status in his MyKad to non-Muslim, the person must obtain a declaration from the Syariah Court.
He said even if the person uses a letter of oath that declares he is not a Muslim or the baptismal certificate, it was still inadequate.
He said although such documents would strengthen the applicant's case, it would not be used in the NRD procedure.
On Liew's claim that the Sabah NRD Director refused to meet her to settle Adenin Ahmad case, he said she and those involved had been given explanation on the matter.
However, because the Syariah Court had convened the trial for May 11, he said it was better to wait for the outcome of the trial.
"I am very disappointed that Christina painted a picture as if the NRD is trying to avoid from settling the problem," he said.
On the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) claim that such cases run into the thousands in Sabah, he said he would also like for the problems to be resolved and urged Liew to give the NRD the list of names of those affected.
Abdul Rahman said if the mistake was clerical error, it could be easily resolved but that if it the documents showed the parents were Muslim, the NRD has no choice but to put Islam in the child's MyKad religion status.
Kota Belud: The Barisan Nasional (BN) sympathises with the people in Sabah who are facing difficulty because the religious status in their identity documents or MyKad was wrongly stated as Islam just because they had a "bin" or "binti" to their names.
Sabah BN Secretary, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said the problem could be easily resolved if those affected would refrain from getting help from the opposition.
He stressed that those who want to help this particular group should be genuinely sincere and strive to help them settle their problem instead of raising more confusion.
"We really sympathise with the issues involving our people in Sabah regarding mistakes in the identity documents issued by the National Registration Department (NRD)," he said.
At the same time, he assured that the BN is keen to settle the problem.
He was commenting on the statement by Sabah Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) deputy chairperson Christina Liew recently.
On Liew's statement that the NRD would simply state the person's religion as "Islam" if the name has a bin or binti, he said the NRD usually would refer to the documents of the applicants' parents when applying for birth certificate or when applying for the MyKad.
He said the NRD procedure is very clear, i.e., that a person would only be given Muslim status based on the documents of his or her parents at the time the application was made.
"Christina's statement is very confusingÉas a lawyer, she should know the procedure," he said.
Abdul Rahman said if the person wants to revert the Muslim status in his MyKad to non-Muslim, the person must obtain a declaration from the Syariah Court.
He said even if the person uses a letter of oath that declares he is not a Muslim or the baptismal certificate, it was still inadequate.
He said although such documents would strengthen the applicant's case, it would not be used in the NRD procedure.
On Liew's claim that the Sabah NRD Director refused to meet her to settle Adenin Ahmad case, he said she and those involved had been given explanation on the matter.
However, because the Syariah Court had convened the trial for May 11, he said it was better to wait for the outcome of the trial.
"I am very disappointed that Christina painted a picture as if the NRD is trying to avoid from settling the problem," he said.
On the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) claim that such cases run into the thousands in Sabah, he said he would also like for the problems to be resolved and urged Liew to give the NRD the list of names of those affected.
Abdul Rahman said if the mistake was clerical error, it could be easily resolved but that if it the documents showed the parents were Muslim, the NRD has no choice but to put Islam in the child's MyKad religion status.
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