PAPAR: Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (pic) said the now controversial Sabah Temporary Pass (PSS) was proposed by the previous Barisan Nasional State Government while the current Harapan government in power is merely implementing it.
He said based on records that were studied, discussions carried out with the Home Ministry, the concept was similar and was formerly known as Sabah Resident Pass (Pas Residen Sabah).
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Muhyiddin said the BN government had discussed and agreed to implement the PSS, then known as the Pas Residen Sabah (PRESS), but couldn’t do so because it did not win in the last general election.
“We studied this matter and based on records in the Ministry, the resident pass was tabled and agreed to by the main committee meeting for management of immigrants (bil 2/2015) on July 31, 2015, before we (Pakatan Harapan) became the government.
“The policy proposals were then presented and agreed upon in a pre-council committee on Feb. 15, 2016 which was after a meeting at officer level. This was agreed at the pre-council committee level along with the then-Home Ministry Chief Secretary and then-Sabah State Secretary.
“On May 16, 2016, the proposal was presented to the Sabah foreigners’ management committee meeting chaired by the then-Home Minister who was also the Deputy Prime Minister and then-Chief Minister,” he told reporters at the Rela Programme, Saturday.
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Also present at the programme were Home Assistant Minister Datuk Azis Jamman and Deputy Chief Minister cum Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Jaujan Sambakong, Rela acting Director – General Kamarudin Mohd Rapig, Home Minister Deputy Chief Secretary (Security) Datuk Zainal Abidin Abu Hassan, among others.
The PSS is due for implementation in June which would involve 136,055 eligible recipients of the IMM13 (51,645), Census certificate (47,518) and Burung-Burung card holders (36,892). He was countering the opposition’s denial of initiating such a proposal.
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“They are saying that if you vote for Warisan, you support illegal immigrants. I think this is not correct as the intention is genuine,” he said.
The home ministry recently issued a statement maintaining the issuance of PSS does not amount to granting citizenship but is meant to standardise the various documents held by foreigners in Sabah.
He also said there was never a step to give citizenship to illegal immigrants but a strategy to tackle the long lasting issue that have been plaguing Sabah.
“The new administration is responsible for the safety of Sabahans and needs a tidier system. This has nothing to do with citizenship which has been a political tool used by the opposition who were the previous government.
“They fear that this is a step to give citizenship, that is a different issue altogether. Nothing to do with this (pass).
Citizenship is under the Malaysian constitution but this does not involve such. This is in the view of immigration law.
“Do not politicise this. This is about the interest of Sabahans. This is about security of Sabah and we are responsible as government both Federal and State to ensure the security and safety of Sabahans are protected by the enforcement of immigration law,” he added.
He stated that the PSS holders’ rights differ to those who are Malaysians as their movements will be limited within Sabah and that this is mainly for their documentation in terms of education, employment, healthcare and marriage.
He said he was aware of the PSS being an issue in the Kimanis by-election but urged voters to view the bigger picture which is monitoring the illegal immigrants in the State
“It is not because of the election, we do not anticipate because of the Kimanis by-election but this is something which is important to Sabah,” he said.
Meanwhile, responding to former Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein who linked PSS with the Lahad Datu intrusion incident in 2013, Muhyiddin said that such statement made no sense.
He said Lahad Datu was clearly a safety issue but the PSS involves the illegal immigrants, a completely different story.
“We are discussing managing those (illegal immigrants) who have been in Sabah for tens of years where even up to two or three generations of them have no documents.”
Hishammuddin, during a ceramah last night, warned of the danger of giving the PSS to migrants, citing the Lahad Datu incursion in 2013 as a prime example.
He said the PSS was related to matters of national security and that Sabah’s security would be in jeopardy if it was not implemented properly. (See separate story).
Asked about concerns that children of PSS holders would eventually get citizenship, Muhyiddin said it was impossible to stop people from getting married and having children, and they would have to be dealt with according to immigration and national registration laws.
“Can we stop them? They need documents to go to school. Should they be stateless forever? For sure the 136,055 people who have these documents now are now 140,000 or 150,000 now, we don’t know. But this is what we are facing now.
“I don’t want to say what the long-term solution is, but this PSS is just the start, it won’t solve that, it is more complicated than that,” he said.
The PSS is due for implementation on June 1, 2020, and will involve holders of the IMM13 document, Kad Burung-Burung and Census Card totalling 136,055 which has been issued since the 1970s. Holders would turn in their existing documents in exchange for the PSS, which would cost RM120 for three years’ validity and renewable at 10 immigration branches across the state and Labuan.
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