Kota Kinabalu: Both Parti Bersatu Sabah and Parti Solidariti Tanah Air Ku (Star) have voiced objection to the Federal Government’s proposal to issue a special card to undocumented foreigners who have been living in Sabah for generations.
PBS Sec-Gen Datuk Joniston Bangkuai said the party’s stand is that all illegal immigrants must be deported and repeated its call to set up a bi-partisan committee in the State Legislative Assembly to find a workable and acceptable solution to the problem.
He said inputs from all parties and stakeholders are crucial to ensure action taken to deal with the problem would receive all-round support and not be questioned and politicised.
“Comparing the preliminary proposal to issue Foreign Workers Card (Kad Pekerja Warga Asing) by the present government with the Sabah Temporary Pass (Pas Sementara Sabah) introduced by the previous Warisan government would only complicate efforts to solve the problem,” he said.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin announced on Thursday that such a card was only to record their presence and did not imply Malaysian citizenship or permanent resident status, although foreigners who have been residing for seven years are eligible to seek citizenship by operation of the law.
Joniston echoed a suggestion by PBS President Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili for the setting up of an inter-party committee as Sabah has ultimate power over immigration, especially now that the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) is part of the Constitution following the recent amendment of Article 1(2) and Article 160(2) of the Federal Constitution.
He also believed that as a responsible government, the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) administration would be transparent and would always consider the interest of the people and the state before making any decision to deal with the illegal immigrant’s issue.
“Let’s not make an assumption or jump the gun but instead wait for the State Government to provide details of the preliminary discussion it had with Putrajaya.
“I believe our Chief Minister and the State leadership, as ‘Orang Asal Sabah,’ would not agree to a decision or action that would be detrimental to the interest of genuine Sabahans,” he said.
Star President Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said the proposal would only further worsen the problem in Sabah.
The Deputy Chief Minister said illegal immigrants should be treated according to the law of the land; caught, charged in the court of law and deported.
“Why should they be given special treatment? They broke our immigration law and committed crime by illegally entering our country? If we go to their countries and do the same, we will be charged, jailed and then deported too. Not given a document and allowed to work.
“Likewise, Malaysia has laws and according to our laws, those who enter our country illegally, must be brought to justice and deported. Giving them identification documents will not prevent future problems. Nor will it guarantee these people will not commit the same crime again. It does not solve anything,” he said in a statement.
Jeffrey said all foreigners in the country must have valid personal documents issued by their respective countries of origin.
The host country, in this case, Malaysia, should not have been troubled or burdened with creating new documents to identify these illegal immigrants.
“Those who crossed into our borders without valid documents must be deported. There are no two ways about this,” he said.
Jeffrey said many native Sabahans, particularly those living in remote locations, lack personal documentation due to the difficulty of travelling to towns to register their births.
He said unlike illegal immigrants, many of these individuals could verify their ancestry and, thus, should be awarded proper documents and given citizenship.
“But, the recent proposal by the Federal Government is nonsensical. It will not solve anything and will simply exacerbate the situation further.
“It may be a little better than the Sabah Temporary Pass (PSS) proposed by the Warisan government because the PSS was meant to grant citizenship to the illegals whilst this document will not. Nevertheless, it still won’t fix the problem,” he said.
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