Dompok gets brickbats for U-turn on illegal immigrants

Queville To

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister, Bernard Dompok, comes under fire for his criticism of Bersih 2.0 rally.

KOTA KINABALU: Former Senator-turned-activist Dr Chong Eng Leong has rebuked a Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) leader for his flip-flop stance on illegal immigrants in the state.

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Bernard Dompok came under attack for criticising the Bersih 2.0 rally which calls for free and fair elections.

Chong said that he was surprised by Dompok’s criticism considering that he has long been a vocal critic of the federal government’s handling of the immigrant problem that has been a thorn in the side of Sabah for decades.

He said that Dompok chose to criticise the rally that had demanded the very things he had long sought – the removal of dubious voters from the electoral rolls.

Chong, a known anti-illegal immigrant activist, said yesterday Dompok’s remarks were off the mark.

Dompok was quoted as saying: “The National Registration Department (NRD) is the culprit, not the Election Commission (EC). If a person has obtained an identity card (IC), the EC has no reason to reject the person’s application to become a voter.”

Chong said Dompok, who is also United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) president, was splitting hairs.

He said that he was surprised Dompok had remained in the federal Cabinet despite the government’s refusal to heed the party’s call to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah all these years.

“May I ask Dompok: ‘You have been a federal minister since 1999 and shouldn’t you know by now why there’s still no Cabinet decision on this RCI?’” he asked.

Critical stage

Chong said that Dompok’s about-turn is all the more stunning given that Upko has been vocal about the issue of illegal immigrants and the so-called Project IC or Project Mahathir (an undercover government project to issue ICs fraudulently in Sabah) for more than 10 years.

Upko leaders have gone on record to state that the issue has reached a critical stage and could affect Sabah’s sovereignty within Malaysia.

It is widely known, though not officially declared, that genuine Sabahans are now outnumbered by foreigners, both undocumented and refugees. At least 70,000 of them are registered in the electoral rolls.

Chong said that Dompok should have realised that the BN government obviously does not want to resolve this perennial issue.

He also reminded Dompok about the crucial Parliamentary Select Committee meeting in 2006, saying: “You were very keen to find out the truth but as you said NRD did not want to answer you – so you resigned the chairman’s post because the Director-General of the NRD rebuffed the committee’s request for details of these dubiously issued ICs,” he said.

Dompok admitted that he quit the chairman’s post because nothing came out of it due to the NRD’s refusal to appear before the committee to clarify the IC issue.

However, Chong said that Upko would not give up seeking the setting up of a RCI, adding that Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein’s rejection of the RCI did not represent the government’s view as the Cabinet has not made any decision.

“We will continue to articulate about it. There must be a reason why the government cannot proceed with the setting up of the RCI,” he said.

Chong said that Dompok has buried his head in the sand over the matter since several leaders had called for a RCI since the late 1990s, but the Cabinet had not been able to reach any decision till now.

He said that nine of the 12 new state constituencies added in 2004 were areas with high concentration of Project IC holders.

The nine are Karambunai, Tanjong Aru, Gum-Gum, Tungku, Senallang, Bugaya, Apas, Tanjong Batu and Sebatik.

“Are you telling Sabahans to disregard the fact that we are being marginalised because of this huge influx of foreigners into Sabah? Where is your patriotism?” he asked.

According to PKR Sabah presidential council member, Ahmad Thamrin Jaini,

Chong is also a deputy to Sabah PKR presidential council member, Ahmad Thamrin Jaini who is in charge of security and immigration.