Trivialising the issue of illegal immigrants

Home Minister Zahid talks about SOPs and avoids addressing what Sabahans want most.

COMMENT

By Gooi Hsiao Leung

Yesterday, in addressing the issue of illegal immigrants in Sabah, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced that a new standard operating procedure (SOP) will be put in place to:

• Determine the status of those holding green ICs,
• Conduct constant checks on the National Registration Department (NRD) and Immigration Department,
• Issue record-of-birth documents instead of birth certificates to non-Malaysians.

I regret that the Home Minister has totally downplayed the gravity of the illegal immigrants problem in Sabah following the release of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report.

The problem is not due to a lack of SOPs, but a suspected cover-up by the government or a lack of political will to uncover the truth and reveal the mastermind and culprits behind Project IC.

The Home Minister is totally avoiding what Sabahans want most: to discover and prosecute those responsible for the treasonous Project IC and to take immediate action to rectify the problem of illegals holding identification cards in Sabah.

The government should immediately recall all illegally issued identity cards as this is what everyone in Sabah wants. This demand was echoed by the former Sabah deputy chief minister, Wilfred M Bumburing, just three days ago. He suggested that the illegally issued identity cards be replaced with visiting passes. NRD should demand that the people concerned surrender the identity cards or face arrest or deportation. As Bumburing says, all Putrajaya needs is the political will to do this.

Instead, the Home Minister has decided to trivialise the entire illegal immigrants issue to one concerning SOPs. He has attempted to dismiss the allegation that there was indeed a Project IC by saying that the illegal issuance of identity cards was merely the work of rogue civil servants. Surely the civil servants were working for higher ups. Who are they? It appears that everyone in the country, except Putrajaya, wants to know who these culprits and masterminds are.

I fully support the calls made by Bersih and Penampang MP Darell Leiking for the Prime Minister to immediately reconvene Parliament to debate the findings of the RCI report on Sabah illegal immigrants, as has been done with other RCI reports. This is a matter of great public importance. The PM must reconvene Parliament for the sake of all the Sabahans who have been disenfranchised and marginalised for so many years as a result of Project IC.

Project IC is not just a Sabah or Borneo problem. It is a Malaysian problem. As Bersih has put it, there are thousands of illegal immigrants registered as voters in Sabah. It is a serious problem and must be rectified straight away before the Election Commission completes its re-delineation of electoral boundaries.

Gooi Hsiao Leung is the MP for Alor Setar