Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) wants the police to carry out a probe to determine whether there is any evidence of criminal wrongdoing involving the Saham Amanah Sabah (SAS).  

The party also wants Deputy Speaker Johnny Mositun hauled in for allegedly implying there's evidence of crime involving the state-sponsored unit trust. If so, the party wants Mositun to be put on the carpet for concealing evidence of a crime.

SAPP Youth chief Edward Dagul stressed in a statement that the party had no choice but to bring in the police after Mositun's remarks in the local media.

yong teck lee sabah sapp party pc 230409 02 The deputy speaker reportedly linked the purchase of the poorly-performing unit trusts to the tenure of party chief Yong Teck Lee ( left ) as chief minister.

"This (Mositun) is yet another statement by a PBS leader falsely accusing and implying that Yong was involved in SAS investment decisions," said Dagul in elaborating on his statement.

"We lodged a report at the Karamunsing station in Kota Kinabalu yesterday to facilitate a police probe."

Dagul explained that Mositun's stand on the SAS does not hold water. For starters, Yong was never involved in any SAS investment decision and has never been a board member of the unit trust, he clarified.

Also, it was a senior Umno leader who was chief minister and finance minister when the SAS was launched amidst much fanfare by the Barisan Nasional which earlier ousted the PBS government after engineering massive defections.

The Sapp Youth chief is not too hopeful however that anything will come out of the party's demand for a police probe. Yet, he remains cautiously optimistic that something will finally be done by the police this time to put the matter to rest once and for all.

"Many of the state ministers from 1994 to 199 are still in the state cabinet today and, except for PBS, keeping mum on the issue," noted Dagul. "This will facilitate police investigations."

Yong filed a police report in 2007

He recalled that Yong himself had lodged a similar police report on June 26, 2007 to press for statements to be taken from two PBS leaders after a press statement by one of them, a day earlier, implying criminal wrongdoing involving the SAS.

Yong's police report, according to Dagul, alleged that PBS lawyer Chin Tet Ming "was reasonably suspected of concealing information, facts and materials which might reveal the real culprits behind the losses and possible manipulation of shares trading involving SAS".

Chin had surmised as much in his press statement on June 25, 2007, according to Yong's police report.

The Sapp chief had also urged the police, in the same report, to probe Information Technology and Resource Development Minister Dr Yee Moh Chai "as the man behind Chin's allegations".

Yee, according to Yong, "was also widely believed to have done all the fact-finding and research on the SAS issue but had not disclosed his findings for reasons known only to him".

Dagul reminded that Sapp had repeatedly called for a probe of the SAS issue even when it was in the BN state government from early 1994 to Sept 17, 2008.

"We even urged the state government to come out with a White Paper which would disclose whether there had been any mismanagement or crime committed, and if so, by whom," he said.

Sapp, reiterated Dagul, "felt that there was something fishy when the BN state government refused to publish a White Paper revealing the dealings, transactions and management of the SAS from Oct 10, 1994 to date".

SAS was launched by then deputy prime minister and finance minister Anwar Ibrahim.

BN gov't has 'something to hide'

Dagul is convinced that the BN state government had something to hide on the SAS issue. This could be because BN and Umno leaders, both at the state and federal levels, "had their skeletons in the SAS records," added Dagul. "This is the reason why they refused to publish the White Paper on the SAS." 

In a parting shot at Mositun, Dagul opined that the deputy speaker has now elevated himself above the status of PBS president and Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan and Upko president and federal minister Bernard Dompok.

He based this on the fact that Chief Minister Musa Aman took the trouble to travel all the way to Papar, an hour's drive from Kota Kinabalu, to attend his Christmas Day open house. At the same time, Musa skipped the open houses of Pairin and Dompok.

Musa, who is also finance minister, had announced on Dec 29 that the SAS recorded a gross profit of RM77, 263, 695 at Dec 15 last year. The main gains were from the share market followed by income from dividends and financial market earnings.

The SAS investors hold 449.3 million units, according to Saham Sabah Berhad. The units were purchased at RM1 per unit in 1994 and had a troubled history since then.

At one time, it was linked to a Sabah-based second board counter which saw its share price rise from less than RM2 per share to a little over RM200 per share in a matter of months.

Last August, the state government purchased 800 million new units in the SAS giving the ailing scheme a much-needed impetus and raising the unit price from 0.17 sen to 0.25 sen.

The SAS has announced a five percent dividend payout for the year just ended. No dividends were announced in 2008.