Press Statement
by Dr Hiew King Cheu, DAP Kota Kinabalu Branch Chairman and DAP candidate in
Gaya Parliamentary By-Election
on 10th October 2002, Thursday
in Gaya
Christina Liew should not distort history of Sabah politics
I am surprise to read the remarks made by Parti Keadilan candidate Christina
Liew in her interview with the online media, Malaysiakini, where she blamed
the DAP for the downfall of PBS in the 1994 state election.
Both Christina and I were former PBS members and we should be experienced
enough in Sabah politics to know that it is not true to say that DAP is the
cause of the collapse of the PBS government in 1994.
It is a fact that DAP had participated in the 1994 Sabah state election. The
reason DAP decided to go into three corners fights with BN and PBS in
certain seats was that the DAP was not in any form of coalition with any of
these parties. As a party that respects the democratic rights of the people
to elect their representatives, the DAP was exercising its democratic role
in seeking mandate from the people of Sabah to become their voice in the
legislative assembly.
In the 1994 Sabah state election, PBS managed to get 25 seats and BN 23
seats. After the additional 6 nominated seats, PBS controlled a total of 31
seats in the Sabah state assembly and thus should have the ability to form
the state government. It is an open secret that the main reason for the
downfall of the PBS government at that time was due to the defection of
some PBS state assemblymen to BN, and nothing whatsoever to do with the DAP.
The distortion of the Sabah political history by Christina Liew is most
regrettable. As Christina Liew has mentioned at the early stage of the
by-election that this by-election is not a battle between the DAP and
Keadilan but rather a battle against the oppressive and corrupt BN, I thus
urge Christina Liew to keep to her words and stop making false allegations
against the DAP.
Lastly, I urge the Gaya people to give their support to the DAP, a party
that has stood by its principle all these years. Let the DAP continue to
represent the people of Gaya in the Dewan Rakyat and become the voice of
Sabahans.