Kota Kinabalu: The State Government should not pass the buck to Sabah's Federal Cabinet members to "follow-up" on the illegal immigrant and associated problems like Project IC as well as Permanent Residence (PR) status to IMM13 holders.Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) Supreme Council member Dr Chong Eng Leong said strong political will must come from the State Government to "chase the Federal Government" and find solutions to these matters.
"Don't pass the buck and leave it to Sabah leaders at the Federal Cabinet," he said commenting on Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman's statement that the three Sabah Ministers in the Federal Cabinet were following up on the issues raised by the Sabah BN during the recent meeting with the Prime Minister here.
Dr Chong, who is also PBS Luyang chief, said the granting of PR to people of non-Sabah origin must have the approval from the State Government.
"But the Federal Government granted PR to IMM13 holders unilaterally and although the State Government announced its displeasure it did nothing to review this (revoke the PR status)," he told reporters, Monday.
He said it seemed that the State Government was not keen on protecting Sabah's rights, even when that is a written right.
Dr Chong also failed to understand the reasons for the Government's reluctance to take action against the Project IC issue despite the many clear cases published in the media.
Among examples of people born outside Malaysia but have coded-12 ICs, which means they were born in Sabah, published in the Daily Express on Jan. 20, 2007, was when two Filipinos showed their new coded-12 ICs and who registered as voters in Karambunai as well as Tanjung Aru.
Another was on Nov. 17, 1998, a Philippine-born Malaysian in Pulau Gaya who was appealing against a smuggling charge also holding a coded-12 IC.
He said the Star also reported on Nov. 18, 2007 that one by the name of Abdulham Bin Abd Rahman who arrived in Sabah in 1982 from Mindanao was given a Malaysian Blue IC 'with endorsement of a local leader in Sandakan'.
"I had checked his old IC number H0515142 and new one is 601016-12-5785Éhe is a registered voter in N48 Sukau," he said.
"These are project IC holders and their population including their children was more than 600,000 by 2006," he said.
Dr Chong said he received a fax from a Bangladeshi who is working in Sabah telling him about his fellow countryman who now had acquired Malaysian citizenship with coded-12 IC number.
"The informant wants to help expose the truth behind the Project IC and he knew of my study on this by reading the papers.
Thus he contacted me. I thought of going to lodge a police report.
"But, on reflection there already numerous police reports on the issue of illegal immigrants and Project IC in the past over 10 years by political parties, NGOs, concerned citizens but nothing has come out of it," he said.
"I have strong reason to believe and understand that there were directives from the powers that be not to entertain such reports, just like the directive to the National Registration Department not to entertain the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity last year," he said, noting that Chairman of the Committee, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, later resigned.
Dr Chong said the people in Sabah viewed the matter seriously since illegal immigrants including the Project IC holders as well as the IMM13 holders were already outnumbering the local population.
"The Federal Government even today still tells us that illegal immigrants are to be housed, fed, sent to schools, issued IMM13 and perhaps issued PR.
This has been done before unilaterally without prior knowledge of the State government," he said.
Dr Chong said all bona fide Sabahans were being short-changed and that the perception of marginalisation was genuine.
"We are losing fast the sense of belonging to this big Malaysia family.
The Sabah map in Malaysia is going towards obliteration. Does Kuala Lumpur want this to happen?" he asked.
Dr Chong said the Federal Government's so-called immediate response to the illegal immigrant woe in Sabah by ordering the construction of two additional temporary detention centres had already been stated two years ago but nothing happened.
"Therefore, strong political will must start from the State Government.
I urge the Chief Minister to act fast.
If the rude wake-up call of the recent general elections is still not heard by Kuala Lumpur then there will never be another warning," he said.
