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QUESTION 1 ) Is Chong Kah Kiat, a BN man for 30 years without switching party, important to BN in Sabah?

From Malaysiakini:

At a press conference in Kuala Lumpur this evening, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he did not think Chong's resignation was a loss and the Sabah government would not be weakened by this.

From The Star:

Question: Tan Sri, why are you suddenly resigning from the state cabinet?

Answer: It's not sudden. I'm a nobody. I'm not important. I'm nothing.

Q: How about (have you told) the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister?

A: I don't think it's important. I am just a small fry... a little state leader.

Q: With your resignation, LDP won't have any representatives in the state cabinet.

A: We've experienced that before, this is nothing new to LDP. We were once represented and then not represented subsequently in the mid-1990s. We had one minister and we didn't have any in 1995. I believe our party is a very small party, not important. We are used to this. If we are not represented (in the cabinet) it doesn't matter. We will have our principles intact.

QUESTION 2 ) Why did Chong have to resign as the deputy Chief Minister of Sabah now?

From Malaysiakini:

Sources told malaysiakini that ties have been strained between the chief minister and his deputy for some time and the final straw was their differences over Chong's proposal to build a huge statue of the Goddess of Mercy in Kudat as a tourist attraction.

The proposal was not only rejected but Chong was also allegedly told that Umno Sabah, headed by Musa, could ignore him because LDP was a mosquito party, added the sources.

It is learnt that the two have not been seeing eye-to-eye since the time Chong was chief minister and had rejected certain projects mooted by Musa, who was then finance minister.

Sources said Musa also viewed his estranged deputy as standing in the way of his plan to develop the popular Pulau Sipadan island off Sabah's east coast.

Chong expressed reservation over the plan, which has also been opposed by federal authorities, due to the possibility of it damaging the environment.

From Bernama:

Asked whether the resignation had anything to do with the construction of a huge statue in the state, Abdullah said that the matter was not mentioned as being one of the reasons for Chong's decision.

Meanwhile, political leaders in Sabah are also pledging their respective political principles one by one.

Watch this space!