Entry control will affect many in Labuan: MIC
Published on: Thursday, April 09, 2015
Labuan: A careful study needs to be made before scrapping the "check-free" entry system into mainland Sabah via ferry or boat from here to Menumbok, said Labuan MIC.Labuan, unlike the other two Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, is close to Sabah border and has a century-old "attachment" with the State, said its Chairman Ramasamy Rengasamy. Commenting on the current debate on the special immigration arrangement, he said:
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"About 70 per cent of the Labuan population hold Sabah-issued MyKads and they have ancestral and other ties with Sabah."It is partly due to this reason that PBS and Upko (and SAPP before) have established divisions here, to assist Sabahans with problems and support their return to constituencies for voting in the State elections."He said abolishing the immigration system would destroy ease of travel between the two points. "The question that needs to be asked is that is this absolutely necessary when the 'check-free' entry system has existed for more than two decades and not known to have posed any major security problem to either Labuan or Sabah," he added.
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Ramasamy said apart from a majority of residents being Sabahans, a sizeable number of them are other Malaysians working in the teaching, medical and other professions."Many of them will, during weekends and long holidays, take the opportunity to hop into Sabah due to convenience of travel and stock up a wide choice of better priced products. There is now even a growing percentage of cars purchased from KK, contributing to the economy of KK and helping to fill up hotel rooms," added Ramasmay.
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He said those who opposed the "check-free" entry system and used Sarawak to compare were not making an appropriate comparison. He said Sarawak does not have a duty free-island along its coastline that has been federalised and populated largely with Sarawakians. "Even if the State has such an island, travel between that island and Sarawak may also have been relaxed."Ramasamay doubted that just because a few Pakistanis had entered Sabah via Labuan, it was a strong justification to have the whole "check-free" system reviewed.He noted that the said foreign nationals had entered Malaysia with valid passports and visas and they could have also used the same documents which had been cleared in Kuala Lumpur to enter KK via the airport and had marriages of convenience to overstay. He said it was just puzzling why these nationals had to go through the Labuan way?Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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