KOTA KINABALU, Oct 8 — Former chief minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee has advised Sabah Democratic Action Party (DAP) leaders to gratefully accept the state awards without having to bother what their Malaya masters think.

Yong said he was amused by Datuk Chan Foong Hin and Datuk Phoong Jin Zhe who seemed to feign helplessness in accepting the Sabah Head of State (TYT) 70th birthday honours of Datukship as though the esteemed awards were forced upon them at the last minute.

"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 per cent net revenue entitlement of Sabah.

"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,” Yong said in a statement today.

Speaking from personal experience, Yong said the day before the TYT birthday (on September 16, 2000), he informed the then Chief Minister (Tan Sri Osu Sukam) and then the TYT (Tun Sakaran Dandai) that he declined the conferment of SPDK for reasons that he made known to the CM and TYT.

"Henceforth, my name was removed from the list to be gazetted although the Istana programme book for the rehearsal has already been printed,” he said.

Yong was commenting on the statement by Chan, who is DAP Sabah Policy Bureau chief, that he accepted the Datukship title out of respect for the Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Juhar Mahiruddin and the Sabah government.

Chan, who is also Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Security and Kota Kinabalu Member of Parliament (MP), said yesterday that he is fully aware of the DAP’s current policy since 2018 which states that only the party’s retirees are entitled to receive such awards.

"I feel like it was not easy to refuse it because I am a Sabahan and the offer came from the Yang di-Pertua and Sabah government, so I received it with good faith.

"At a certain point, Phoong and I had thought about withdrawing, but eventually our names were gazetted.

Once our names were gazetted, we felt that we need to respect the decision and recommendation by the Sabah government and Tun Juhar.

"I will surrender myself to the party and shall leave it up to them to decide on the issue,” he said.

Chan and Phoong were among 50 recipients who were conferred the Panglima Gemilang Darjah Kinabalu (PGDK) award, which carries the Datuk title, in a coronation ceremony here yesterday. — Borneo Post