Sabah MyKad: Not giving up hope on RCI

Penampang- Upko President Tan Sri Bernard Dompok hopes the Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrants will still be announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

He said this when asked by the media whether he shared the people's disappointment that Najib came and went without a word on the RCI last week.

Dompok said the media should have been the ones to query the Prime Minister about the matter but reporters present told him they were not given the opportunity to do so as no press conference had been arranged for them with Najib.

"Well I have always said that this matter should have been dealt with urgently and I maintain it is my stand, that this is an urgent matter and needs to be attended to, especially since the Cabinet had decided on Feb 8 to go ahead with this.

"I think the Government must expedite the terms of reference and the appointment of the people who should be members of this commission.

"There has been no reversal of Cabinet decision on the matter.

What both the Cabinet and parliament have been made aware of is that they were waiting on the terms of reference É I am not sure whether the State Government has come up with their proposals but they have been asked to contribute towards the terms of reference."

On the request by Najib that each component party send their candidates for a meeting on the coming 13th General Election, Dompok said Upko hasn't done it yet.

"All in good time. There is no reason for worry on the issue as Upko has gone through so many elections with the BN before and there has not been any problems in communicating who the candidates are.

"By the end of the day it is the individual component parties who I think will decide on who the candidates are."

Regarding Upko's seat allocation, Dompok said it cannot be less that what Upko already has and the party was looking for improvement.

When asked about Upko Deputy President cum Tuaran MP Datuk Wilfred Bumburing's stand or position in Upko and speculations about whether he was still with the party, Dompok reiterated that Bumburing was still with Upko.

Dompok also said there was a need to codify the various practices of the Sabah native courts in an effort to bring about better administration of native laws in the State.

"The practices from each district vary and I think there is a need to see whether there is some way this can be codified to bring about a better administration of native laws," he said.

Speaking after the officiating the official groundbreaking ceremony of the RM5 million Penampang Native Court building, he said the allocation was part of the Federal Government's RM100m to the State of which RM60m was for the development of native courts and a training institute for native court administrators.

"But we are requesting for additional allocation for the development of at least six more native courts," said Dompok, who is Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister.

On whether this meant that Native Customary Rights will be streamlined in due time, Dompok who is also Chairman of the Cabinet's Technical Committee for Sabah and Sarawak Bumiputras, said this is something that should be addressed.

"Once the institute is constructed with an allocation of about RM30m I think we can begin the work of trying to see whether we can codify the practices among all the districts in the State.

"The intention of all this, of course, is to prepare and look forward to the day when the native court system takes its place alongside the civil and syariah courts as one of the pillars of the judicial system of Malaysia and I think this is a big step."

Dompok also took the opportunity to thank the Chief Justice for Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Richard Malanjum for his initiative to institutionalise the native court system and in setting up the training institute.

-dailyexpress.com