Illegals getting Mykads everyday

STRANGER…. Alex talking to the ‘people’ waiting to be registered.

SABAH DAP Kudat Chief, Alex Wong today went pass the Sikuati town near Kudat saw a registration boot where many people were queuing up for an registration exercise.

Out of curiosity, he approached the people who gathered at the community hall in Sikuati to find what is happening. He was told by the people in the market that there is a registration for the MyCard application.

He saw quite a number of people waiting and these people seem to be not our local folks and some are elderly. He then spoke to some of them and confirmed through the conversation that they are not even the locals from Kudat district.

The Native Chief present there refused to comment when asked how can these people suspected to be foreigners can registered to apply for our MyCard, and he declined to comment and just sat down with these groups of alleged foreigners.

The registration exercise was started on the 13th to the 17th of June. There had been many such people who had come for the registration.

According to the people interviewed by Alex Wong, the registration was supposed to be meant for the late registration for the local new born, but how come these older people were queuing up to register. Many of them had the letter of consent from the DO, Ketua Kampong and Native Chief, before they can register.

Alex said this is extraordinary to see that the registration exercise is done in such a manner, and it is improper. He wants the JPN and JKM to explain why this is happening.

Alex said he was told that this type of registration is not only happening in Sikuati, but this had been carried out in many other places in Sabah eg. In Petagas, Telipok, Pulau Banggi and even in Penampang.

If we are registering the foreigners to give them MyCard, this is dead wrong and this is an act of treason. We cannot allow this to happen under our nose, and that is why our population had jumped 390% during the past.

Who is behind all these, and who should be held responsible? Are we the local Sabah Bumiputra going to be the minority when compared with the ‘new Bumiputra’?

Something has to be done to stop this, otherwise our children and grand children will definitely suffer. I see no use to ask the BN government to investigate into this matter, and the only way to stop this is to change the government and let Pakatan Rakyat to replace them.

Resolve ‘stateless’ children issue now

Sabah is getting a severe beating over the issue of stateless children, says a deputy minister.

SANDAKAN: Sabah’s image is getting a severe beating as a result of the increasing number of stateless children, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, VK Liew, said.

He added that it was imperative that the government give this issue its urgent attention.

“We must find ways to resolve this outstanding issue once and for all.

“Al Jazeera (news channel) showed ugly scenes of stateless children sniffing glue in Sabah. These scenes were taken in the city (Kota Kinabalu) and the nearby Pulau Gaya.

“These stateless children do not represent the Malaysian society in Sabah.

“They are here because many of their parents, who are illegal immigrants, have either abandoned them or left them when they were arrested or deported to their countries of origin.”

Stateless children are a by-product of the massive influx of illegal immigrants into Sabah.

According to an Asia Foundation December report, the demand for cheap labour in Sabah’s palm oil plantations and its labour-intensive production processes have kept the migrants coming since the 1970s.

The report noted that as at 2009, Sabah was home to about 52,000 stateless children and the numbers were steadily increasing.

These children were mainly from Indonesian and Philippines plantation workers who grew up on palm oil plantations.

“Others spend their childhood on the streets, as child labourers, and are exposed early to social ills like glue sniffing, drugs, petty crime, or child abuse,” noted the report.

Serious issue

Speaking to reporters here after his “Bringing service to people” programme, Liew said the central issue was the massive illegal immigrant population in Sabah.

“This issue has plagued us for decades. We can no longer pretend and hope that the problem will go away one day.

“These children are a serious issue. They will grow up in our society. The issue is not going to disappear if we don’t do something.

“We need a pro-active approach to these children without names. They must be identified and pursued without fail,” said Liew, who is also Sandakan MP.

Liew, who is also Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) president, is among a rare few Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders who have openly called for a solution to the perennial issue which has ripped apart Sabah’s socio-political and economic fabric.

Another BN ally, Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), had recently warned the federal and state governments that the people of Sabah would no longer stand idly by if the security situation within the state degenerates into chaos due to illegal immigrants.

Sabah has the highest number of poor in the country and an increasing crime statistic.

PBS had also warned that BN stood to lose Sabah over the illegal immigrant issue.

The illegal immigrants population currently exceeds native Sabahans.

Call for RCI

According to Common Interest Group Malaysia (CigMA)chiarman Daniel Jambun, there are currently “1.7 million illegals in the state and this is the mother of all issues in Sabah”.

“Today, the 1.5 million Sabahans have effectively been marginalised and disenfranchised in their own land by the illegal immigrants because the federal government chooses to do nothing.”

Both CigMA and opposition PKR have called for the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry to resolve the illegal immigrant issue.

But the federal goverment has refused to response to the call. Many believe that this is primarily because Umno was allegedly involved in legalising illegal immigrants in the 1990s.

Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman was allegedly the director of Sabah Umno Task Force from 1919-1993 and charged with recruiting foreigners as voters by granting then Malaysian citizenship.

Currently, many of the theories being bandied around is that both Sabah Umno and PBS need the illegal immigrant votes to stay in power and ensure a BN win in the parliamentary polls.

‘Sabah has immigration powers’

The state BN government can act on its own to deal with immigration issue, says former PKR vice-president Jeffrey Kitingan.

KOTA KINABALU: Borneo rights activist Jeffrey Kitingan believes that Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) partner, Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), is barking up the wrong tree by asking the federal government to grant immigration powers to the state.
He said the state already has immigration powers and all it needed to do was to enforce them to solve the problem of illegal immigrants.

Jeffrey, who is United Borneo Front (UBF) chairman, is also the younger brother of Deputy Chief Minister and PBS president, Joseph Pairin Kitingan.

Jeffrey said he did not understand why PBS felt the state BN government needed federal government backing on the issue.

He said that while he fully agreed with PBS secretary-general Henrynus Amin’s statement that the decades-long issue must be resolved, he was puzzled as to why the party felt that the state BN government had no powers to deal with the matter.

“This is because the state already has the full, unquestionable power to arrest illegals and deport them without referring to the federal government.

“The state’s power of immigration was never surrendered to the federal government. All the state government needs to do is to assert its power and solve our immigration problems.

“We still have the power to deny entry to non-Sabahans the same way Lim Kit Siang (the DAP leader at the time) was denied entry and was forced to re-board the plane during the Berjaya rule,” Jeffrey said.

He pointed out that the Immigration Department should report to Chief Minister Musa Aman.

“The chief minister can direct the Sabah Commissioner of Police to act in the same way the district officer can direct the district police chief to act,” he said.

“Let’s not forget that as chief minister, Musa is also the chairman of the State Security Committee, a unit under the state’s internal affairs unit.

“This committee is the one tasked with monitoring, co-ordinating and acting on security matters in Sabah,” Jeffrey added.

Initiate action

According to Jeffrey, all the state needed to do now was to initiate action to solve the state’s security problem without depending on the federal government to give the go-ahead.

“If the state BN is really serious about retaining Sabah as its fixed deposit, it would act on this matter for its own good as well.

“It cannot keep shying away from carrying out its duties and responsibilities and think it needs KL’s approval all the time,” he said.

He suggested that as BN component parties, PBS and Upko should engage with their main partner, Umno, in the state government to solve the problem.

“PBS and Upko should broach this matter to the state cabinet and deal with the federal government as soon as possible,” Jeffrey said.

He, however, questioned the sincerity of the state government in wanting to handle the issue that could cause many leaders to get their fingers burnt if they decided to go too deeply into it.

“I wonder if the (state security) committee has been meeting to discuss security and immigration matters.”

Last week, former Senator Dr Chong Eng Leong said the statement by PBS showed that the party was in a dilemma over its role in the BN coalition government.

PBS said last week that it was not satisfied with government action on illegal immigrants in the state and saw “the day-to-day police operations, roadblocks, IC checks or immigration raids as mere window-dressing”.

Michael Kaung

Tackle minorities’ plight, govt told

G Vinod

NGOs submit memo urging the PM to resolve illegal immigrant woes in Sabah and recognise indigenous people's rights over NCR land.

KUALA LUMPUR: Six NGOs representing minorities groups in the nation handed over a memorandum to the government in a bid to compel the government to address their plight.


Among the signatories were Borneo Resources Institute (Brimas), Common Interest Group of Malaysia (CigMa), Hindraf Makkal Sakthi, Indigenous People’s Network of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak Dayak-Iban Association (Sadia) and Sarawak Dayak National Union.

“We had a conference on the marginalisation of minorities in Malaysia earlier this year. We drafted a memo and submitted it to the government. Hopefully, the government will look into the issues,” said Hindraf advisor N Ganesan at a press conference today.

The memorandum was addressed to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and was submitted to his department in Putrajaya this morning.

Also present during the press conference were Cigma president Daniel John Jambun and Indigenous People’s Network of Malaysia’s Yusri Yahut.

One of the issues discussed earlier this year was the urgent need to recognise the indigenous people across the nation as the original inhabitants and also for the establishment of committees under local
councils for the disabled.

Ganesan said that NGOs were now coming together as a collective unit and there was a better prospect of having their voices heard with the larger representation.

“We are expanding our network to include other minority groups for strength in numbers. It is gaining momentum and hopefully it can create changes for the marginalised,” said Ganesan.

Return confiscated land

Daniel John said his NGO highlighted a very important issue plaguing the people of Sabah, which is the influx of a large number of illegal immigrants.

“Sabahans demand the government institute a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate allegations that illegal immigrants in the state are being given MyKad indiscriminately.

“We want justice.We also want the names of those illegals issued MyKads deleted from the electoral list before the general election and brought to book,” said Daniel.

Yusri called on the government to respect indigenous people as the original inhabitants of the land.

“We want the government to respect our history and recognise the customary rights of the indigenous people to their lands.

“In addition, we want the government to return land confiscated from the indigenous people or provide adequate compensation for their losses,” he said.