Kota Kinabalu: Ex-Chief Justice of Malaysia Tun Richard Malanjum (pic) said he does not expect Sabah, like Sarawak, to ever give up the internal immigration controls accorded to it under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
“I am aware of the objections,” he said at the book launch of “Citizen In Crisis: The Ripple Effect of the Undocumented Migrants in Sabah” at the State Library, recently.
Many Peninsular Malaysians, including activists and politicians, have been turned away by immigration officials in both Kuching and Kota Kinabalu in the past with no official reason needed to be given.
Non-Sabah and Sarawak lawyers also do not have the right to practise in Sabah and Sarawak courts under Article 161B, unless they apply for a licence from the High Court of Sabah and Sarawak.
Even if have obtained the licence, they still have to apply for a work permit from the respective State Immigration Departments.
“Freedom of movement under Article 9 of the Federal Constitution cuts both ways, and Sabah’s immigration autonomy under Part VII of the Immigration Act is something we Sabahans will never give up,” Malanjum said, echoing the stand of late Premier (Chief Minister) of Sarawak, Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud, who in the past had said that the Sarawak Government would like to be open on the flow of people to the State but is conscious of the security implications.
Taib, who later became Governor, specifically pointed to the problem faced by Sabah due to the sudden influx of immigrants from neighbouring countries, especially following Parti Bersatu Sabah’s (PBS) pullout from the then federal ruling coalition in 1990.
Hence, Taib stressed that the immigration requirement for non-Sarawakians to show identification documents on entering the state would stay as it is in the best interest of Sarawak.
Taib said the policy was adopted at the formation of Malaysia and no Sarawak Chief Minister had the mandate to change it.
“We are not against the free flow of people coming to the State. It is just that we don’t want a situation which we can’t handle in future,” Taib had said.
Both Bornean states were accorded the special immigration right as among the safeguards for agreeing to form Malaysia with the participation of Singapore, Sarawak and British North Borneo (Sarawak).
Meanwhile, Malanjum made the comments when launching the book written by his former Special Officer Dr Melissa Chia, who now is serving as Sessions Court Judge in Labuan.
Malanjum noted that every proposal on Sabah’s huge stateless people problem that might actually have ended the matter had been floated and abandoned.
“Issue a Kad Warga Asing. (Then it was) issue a Pas Sementara Sabah to every migrant so that at least we know who is here. (Then) Recall the wrongfully issued identity cards.
“(Then) Issue a distinct Sabah identity card. Each of these was announced, discussed and quietly dropped.
“Not because they were unworkable, but because a solved problem cannot be campaigned on,” said Malanjum.
“Every overcrowded school, every clinic short of medicine, every water village without sanitation, every hospital bed occupied by a patient with no document and no payer, is a cost borne by the Sabah taxpayer for a problem the Sabah taxpayer did not create.
“The 2010 Census counted close to 900,000 non-citizens in this State, more than a quarter of the population, and every serious observer regards that as an undercount. No development plan can succeed when the denominator is unknown,” Malanjum said.
