KOTA KINABALU, Sunday, 8 October 2023
I am amused by Sabah DAP leaders Chan Foong Hin and Phoong Jin Zhe who seem to feign helplessness in accepting the Sabah Head of State (TYT) Birthday Honours of Datukship as though the esteemed awards were forced upon them at the last minute.
My advice to Sabah DAP leaders is to gratefully accept the awards without having to bother what their Malaya masters think.
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.
Meanwhile, if they were truly unable to accept the awards for whatever reasons, then all they needed to do was to courteously explain to the Chief Minister and TYT that they do not mean to be disrespectful to the TYT or ungrateful to the Chief Minister.
I speak from personal experience. The day before the TYT birthday (on 16 September 2000), I informed the then Chief Minister (Tan Sri Osu Sukam) and then the TYT (Tun Sakaran Dandai) that I declined the conferment of SPDK for reasons that I made known to the CM and TYT.
Henceforth, my name was removed from the list to be Gazetted although the Istana program book for the rehearsal has already been printed.
Yong Teck Lee
ex-Chief Minister of Sabah