Sabah Agenda needed to rid illegals
Tuesday, 21 November 2006 (Source: Daily Express)

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) said there is need for a Sabah Agenda to rid the State of its predicament of foreigners claiming to be Bumiputera through dubious means.

Supreme Council member Dr Chong Eng Leong (pic) said PBS had no qualms about the Malay Agenda as stressed by the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister who are also the President and Deputy President of Umno, respectively, during the recently concluded Umno General Assembly.

"Whatever agreed upon as enshrined in the Constitution on Bumiputera rights and privileges when Malaysia was formed in 1963 is fine.

"But in Sabah, against our laws and Constitution, Malaysian ICs were issued to foreigners who then claim to be Sabah Bumiputera with all the rights and privileges. This cannot be accepted by anyone who is patriotic to Malaysia," he told reporters here Monday.

According to him, a Sabah Agenda is needed to counter this situation as it would cost Sabah's sovereignty within Malaysia.

In this context, Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) components need to sit down together and deliberate on how best to tackle the problem, he said.

A call to this effect made by Upko President Tan Sri Bernard Dompok was shot down by Sabah BN Chairman Datuk Seri Musa Aman, who is also Chief Minister.

However, Dr Chong said in view of the statement by former acting State Commissioner of Police Datuk Bakri Zinin "there is ground to appeal for the leadership to reconsider".

"We cannot surrender this totally to the Federal Government. At least, we have our own plan," he said.

Dr Chong claimed at present there are 600,000 "new Sabah Bumiputeras" living alongside the 1.2 million genuine ones.

"Besides there are more than 750,000 illegal immigrants who are without papers or with expired papers, about 64,000 IMM13 holders and varying number of those with work passes ranging from 153,000 to 418,000.

"This is the cause of the extraordinary population explosion. We have today 1.5 million genuine Malaysians in Sabah as against at least 1.75 million foreigners including the new Bumiputeras," he said.

Dr Chong said Filipino "refugees" were supposed to stay within designated centres in five different parts of Sabah, but they are to be found residing outside these centres, "which were taken over by their relatives from back home".

In addition, he said the refugee figure of around 60,000 had never changed from the beginning when they first came to Sabah in the 1970s.

"In reality today there should be around 240,000 of them given the fact that the increase rate of Sabah's population from 1970 to 2000 was 300 per cent," he said.

"By telling us that there are only about 64,000 today means large numbers of them are part of these 600,000 new Bumiputeras," he said.

Dr Chong said the issue of political interference had been raised and Bakri, a top police officer himself, had cautioned that the Government should not wait another 10 or 20 years as by then it will be too late to act if the "mother of all Sabah's woes" continues unabated.

He said despite Federal leaders describing the problem as very serious and critical in the past seven years ad hoc actions like Ops Nyah only amounted to pulling down squatter houses and rounding up illegals.

"But, (during that time) there was never mention of those who are in possession of Malaysian ICs issued through the back door like the Project IC," he said.

He said police reports had been lodged by him and others like Cash on the same subject but the statement of the former acting CP obviously showed that police alone cannot solve the matter.

"Therefore, a concerted effort to involve all avenues including strong political will must be formulated. This is none better than the State BN components to trash it out first and then submit to the Federal Government for further action," he said.

Dr Chong said in the past federal and state leaders had their own pride and prejudice as well as suspicion towards each other, which should be forgotten and forgiven.

"Let there be reconciliation and sincerity and work together to saving Sabah's sovereignty within Malaysia. We want Malaysia intact. We appeal to our Prime Minister.

"Please do not ignore our cry for our country's security and sovereignty. Please act now on the Sabah Agenda," he said.