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KOTA KINABALU: Sabah should take control of screening its own citizens through a state-level Home Affairs Ministry to oversee labour laws, citizenship, and immigration, says Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan.

He said there is nothing stopping Sabah from implementing its own identification card (IC), which would help differentiate genuine Sabahans and allow the enforcement of native laws and immigration regulations.

“I still believe we should implement the Sabah IC. There is no law preventing us from doing so. It will set us apart from other Malaysians and enable us to enforce our own regulations.

“It will also help remove those who obtained citizenship through ‘Project IC.’ I don’t agree that this cannot be done.

"If we can issue visas, MyKad, and debit cards, we can issue the Sabah IC,” he said, referring to the alleged covert operation in the 1970s that granted citizenship to immigrants to manipulate the electoral roll.

Jeffrey, a strong advocate of Sabah-centric initiatives such as Sabah Day, said a special mechanism should be introduced to allow state authorities to verify genuine Sabahans at the grassroots level.