Pairin: Flushing out of illegals must continue
Tuesday, 8 February 2005 (Source: Daily Express)

KOTA KINABALU:: Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) President Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan assured that the party will assist the Government in whatever capacity to flush out the illegal immigrants.

As a strong advocate on the issue, he said it is the party's hope that the illegal immigrants leave the State and country without force.

Pairin, who is also Deputy Chief Minister-cum-Rural Development Minister, was commenting on the Federal Government's "softer approach" to persuade illegal immigrants still in the country to leave on their own.

"The illegals have to respondÉit is for their own good and also in compliance with the Government directive," he said when met at Gaya Street Sunday fair, here, Sunday.

He said the Government is serious in tackling the perennial issue that they already have taken measures to resolve them.

On Thursday last week, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the Jan. 31 amnesty deadline for illegal immigrants to leave the country had not been extended.

However, he said the Government will adopt a "soft" approach in the short term to persuade them to leave on their own.

Najib said the decision was made considering that most of the illegal immigrants were Indonesians and Malaysia sympathised with their country which faced internal pressure in facing the aftermath of the devastating tsunami on Dec. 26.

The amnesty was introduced on Oct. 29 for 17 days prior to Aidilfitri but following an appeal from Indonesia, it was extended to Dec. 31 and again to Jan. 31 after the earthquake and tsunami disaster.

Pairin, meanwhile, said it is important for the Government to continue with the flushing out of illegal immigrants' programme.

"(Indonesian) people are suffering and they (Malaysian Government) have to take these into account.

"But the way I see it, they will go ahead with the programme and I think this is very important," he said.

Pairin said the Government would not stop taking necessary action to send back the illegal immigrants to their country of origin as well as taking legal action against them.

It is for this reason, he believed that the illegals know the situation and that they will respond to the call accordingly.

"Some of them may take time because they panicked and went into hiding. But they have to respondÉit is for their own good," he stressed.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman had already pledged that the crackdown would continue, as did Sarawak.

The Sarawak Government, it was reported, went ahead in rounding up illegal immigrants despite the Federal Government "softer" stand on the issue.