Party president Yong Teck Lee says the party will no longer underestimate smear tactics used against it, having learned a bitter lesson in the 2013 polls.
SAPP president Yong Teck Lee has issued letters of demand to two individuals who made false accusations against him on Facebook.
KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) is firing back at individuals who have made malicious statements about the party.
SAPP president Yong Teck Lee said the party’s lawyers had issued letters of demand to two individuals who made false accusations against him in their Facebook postings and comments.
One of them had accused Yong of implementing the 15% state sales tax on the sale of state lottery tickets when the tax was actually implemented by the state government in 1999, a year after Yong stepped down as chief minister.
The other individual claimed “Yong was sitting comfortably in the backyard of (Sabah BN chairman) Musa Aman’s house before the 13th general election”.
“This statement implied that I am a hypocrite and a cheat. It is a blatant lie and must not go unpunished,” he said at a press conference at the party’s headquarters here today.
The letters of demand are to compel both individuals to issue a public apology, retract their statements and pay reasonable compensation to SAPP and Yong.
The party’s lawyers will also take similar action against three other individuals for similar reasons.
One will be sent to a Facebook user who alleged that Yong had a punch-up with DAP candidate for Kota Kinabalu Chan Foong Hin at the Gaya Street fair when in fact both men had a cordial chat at the time.
Another edited a Facebook post of a SAPP member to imply that SAPP was dishonest.
One more person also alleged on WhatsApp that one of SAPP’s candidates had received money from BN.
“In the 2013 general election, we underestimated the impact of such smear tactics on Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat and other social media apps. The consequences were obvious in the outcome of the election.
“But eventually, we were vindicated when Junz Wong (winner of the Likas state seat in the 2013 polls) publicly apologised for the outright lies about the RM50 million bribe which he said I had received from Prime Minister Najib Razak. This allegation was posted on Facebook.
“By that time, he had already won. The damage had been done.
“Never again will we allow this to happen because such lies and untruths can affect the democratic choice of voters,” he said.
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Sumber SAPP acts on malicious statements against party