If I’ve declined titles before, so could have Sabah DAP leaders, says former CM

KOTA KINABALU: Former Sabah chief minister Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee says he is amused by the antics of two Sabah DAP leaders who were awarded state honours which came with “Datuk” titles from the Governor.

“I am amused by Sabah DAP leaders Chan Foong Hin and Phoong Jin Zhe, who seem to feign helplessness in accepting the Yang di-Pertua Negeri’s (TYT) birthday honours of Datukship – as though the esteemed awards were forced upon them.

“My advice to Sabah DAP leaders is to gratefully accept the awards without having to bother what their DAP masters in the peninsula think,” said Yong, who is Sabah Progressive Party president.

“If they were truly unable to accept the awards for whatever reasons, 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,” he said.

Yong said that he had previously declined a Seri Panglima Darjah Kinabalu (SPDK) title – the state’s highest honour – in 2000 by informing then-chief minister (Tan Sri Osu Sukam) and then TYT (Tun Sakaran Dandai).

“I declined the SPDK for reasons I made known to the chief minister and TYT. My name was removed from the list to be gazetted although the Istana program had already been printed,” he said.

Chan, the federal Deputy Agriculture and Food Security Minister, and Phoong Jin Tze, the state Industrial and Entrepreneur Development Minister, would have to answer to the DAP’s central working committee, according to party secretary-general Anthony Loke.

DAP policy only allowed members who had retired to accept honours from the state or federal governments.

In 2018, three Sabah DAP leaders, the late Datuk Stephen Wong, Datuk Frankie Poon (now Sabah DAP chairman) and Datuk Jimmy Wong accepted the titles. Party leaders at that time accepted their apology.