KOTA KINABALU: Deputy Home Minister Datuk Azis Jamman (pic) said the planned Temporary Sabah Pass or Pas Sementara Sabah (PSS) due for implementation in June is among recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah.
“Some time ago RCI made a recommendation on illegal immigrants and that is what we are continuing. This has been started since the previous government, series of meetings at the committee level were held and Datuk Zahid (former Home Minister) came to Sabah and had a meeting with Tan Sri Musa Aman (former Chief Minister).
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“So when we took over the government, we were briefed on this matter and we have no problem in continuing just as the RCI suggested,” he said, after attending a gala dinner organised by the National Anti-Drugs Agency (AADK) sport and welfare club (Sukeb) and Persatuan Warisan Wanita Kreatif Sabah (Pertafa), Friday.
Aziz said it was strange when Parti Bersatu Sabah attacked them on the PSS when PBS was part of the previous government in which this committee was formed.
“When people accused us saying this was the idea of Parti Warisan Sabah, that we are rearing illegal immigrants (Pati) because we want to give the PSS…this is not our fault because it was the recommendation of the previous government which was RCI’s recommendation, it was started by them.
“I will furnish the minutes and data from a few years back soon in Kimanis and show evidence that this has been started since years ago,” he said.
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On the “Black Sunday” peaceful protest to be held today (Sunday), he said “this is the Pakatan Harapan government and not Barisan Nasional, every individual has the right to assemble and the current government allows any individual to assemble as long as the rules are in place.
“The question is do they understand PSS? I as Deputy Minister am disappointed because the people behind the PSS protests actually do not fully have an understanding of PSS.
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“The Government will not stop any individual from assembly as long as they abide by the rules and law, inform the authorities and have permits. Let them assemble. As far as we know, PSS will go according to the timeline we’ve mentioned.”
Aziz said that the town hall session on the PSS would be held in early January. “We will invite leaders, including the opposition. So they should come, this is my official invitation to them,” he said.
Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) is organising the “Black Sunday” peaceful protest to oppose Putrajaya’s plan to implement the PSS for immigrants in the state.
The party’s youth chief, Jamain Sarudin, said SAPP believed the issuance of the PSS is a bid by the present government to recognise the presence of illegal immigrants in the state.
Azis also said the Parti Warisan-led State Government is not the first to provide land as settlement for war refugees from a foreign country, as it had been done by the previous governments.
He also said the recent suggestion by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal for war refugees to be placed on an island, as a measure to control the population, is merely a spontaneous idea and not something that can be made as a policy.
“This is not the first government to provide land for war refugees. The existing Temporary Detention Centres (PTS) in Telipok, Kinarut, Sandakan, Tawau and several others in Sabah have all been provided by the previous governments,” he said when asked to comment on Sabah Umno Youth Chief’s accusation that Shafie is the first Chief Minister to offer an island for war refugees.
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Azis said the Chief Minister’s suggestion was just his spontaneous idea in response to a briefing given by the Sabah National Security Council (MKN) and Immigration officers regarding the PTS which is now becoming larger and uncontrollable.
“It is a policy and it has never been brought up in any meeting. So far no meetings or state directives have been ordered to search the island, no such thing. It is not right when you say that the Chief Minister is the first to provide land for war refugees when all of the PTS was clearly provided by the previous governments,” he said.