Lack of political will to resolve illegal immigrants issue – Sipaun

KOTA KINABALU: There appears to be a lack of political will on the part of the government to resolve the perennial issue of illegal immigrants in Sabah, said Human Rights Promotion Association (PROHAM) president Tan Sri Simon Sipaun.

“Is it surprising that until today the problems associated with illegal immigrants continue to persist? I believe the answer is no,” he said during the Roundtable Discussion on Citizenship Issues at Universiti Malaysia Sabah here yesterday.

“All the moves, actions and pronouncements made by the government have not achieved the desired results, otherwise this issue would surely be only history today,” he added.

Sipaun said a Federal Task Force was established more than 25 years ago after the then Sabah Chief Minister drew the attention of the Prime Minister to the seriousness of the illegal immigrant problem in Sabah, so that the federal government could be seen to be doing something to resolve the problem.

However, he said it took the federal leader one year just to create the post of the head of the task force, indicating the lack of sense of urgency and commitment in addressing the issue.

“Today the task force is still in existence but so is the problem. The only difference is that the problem is a lot bigger and much more complicated,” he said.

Sipaun also noted that the government at one time had mentioned about instituting separate courts to handle cases specifically for illegal immigrants, but ever since then no further development on the matter was ever heard again.

“The Chief Minister was quoted (in August 2006) by a local daily as saying that the State Government will rid Pulau Gaya of illegal immigrants once and for all and their homes will be demolished soon.

“You can see for yourselves that until today such noble intention is yet to be translated into action. How can we take the government pledges seriously?” he argued.

Sipaun also noted that the effort by certain groups to collect 100,000 signatures from among Sabahans who wanted a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to be set up to address the illegal immigrant issue was answered with a long period of silence.

He said it was only in February when two Federal Cabinet ministers from Sabah announced that the central government had agreed to set up the proposed RCI and that a formal announcement would be made by the Prime Minister himself.

“Since then, the PM had visited Sabah twice and his deputy had visited once but no announcement was ever made.  It had also been reported that the Terms of Reference (TOR) were being finalized.

“The question I have is who is telling the truth? As far as I am aware a cabinet decision is based on a very comprehensive cabinet paper … the draft cabinet paper is usually referred to the relevant government agencies, including the Ministry of Finance for financial implications and Attorney General’s Chamber for legal implications.

“Once the decision is made on it, it only remains to be implemented. The issue of TOR should not arise. To decide on RCI without knowing its TOR is like putting the cart before the horse,” he said.

Sipaun, who is a former State Secretary, said more and more genuine Sabahans are convinced that this is a deliberate move or agenda for Sabah by the federal government.

He said there were books, articles and even researches that supported such contention.

He noted that the Parliament amended the Election Act whereby the electoral roll once gazetted cannot be challenged in any court of law, following the High Court decision to null the 1999 Likas election result due to existence of phantom voters.

Sipaun also provided several examples to put the magnitude of the illegal immigrant problems in Sabah into perspective.

The district of Kinabatangan in June 2005 had a population of 85,000 and only about 25,000 were Malaysians, said Sipaun without revealing the source of the figure.

He added that in December the same year, Sabah’s prison population was 3,052 and 70 per cent of this were foreigners.

Citing a news report more than 20 years ago, he said about 5,000 people lost their homes in a fire at Kampung Ice Box and only about 500 of them were Malaysians.

Sipaun also criticized Deputy Home Minister Lee Chee Leong who in November last year denied that Sabah is a victim of ‘Project IC’, saying the latter’s action was tantamount to denying the undeniable and insulting the intelligence of the people of Sabah.

He hinted that there were many clear evidences indicating the existence of ‘Project IC’, the most obvious being the sudden population increase in Sabah.

He also noted that 34 foreigners were found in possession of genuine MyKad in 2002, when the government had not yet even introduced the high quality identification document in Sabah.

“There could not be any other authority doing this other than the federal authority. This speaks volume,” he said.