SAPP gets STAR support for Sabah IC

Kinabatangan parliamentary constituency in Sabah is allegedly becoming the main hideout for immigrants now numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

TONGOD: A key leader of State Reform Party (STAR) in Kinabatangan, allegedly flooded by illegal immigrants, has urged the party leadership to consider adopting a proposal by the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) to introduce a Sabah identification card if it forms the government.

James Ait, who is also STAR state committee member, in a statement here today, said that the issuance of such state own identification card should be stringent and will differentiate between those genuine Sabahans and those who gained MyKads but are not eligible for them.

“It is sad that today MyKads are freely being given to newly-arrived immigrants, especially to Muslims from the southern Philippines and Indonesia. In Kinabatangan, we are outnumbered by them now,” he said.

Kinabatangan parliamentary is as large as the whole Pahang but it sparsely populated. It has allegedly become the main hideout for immigrants now numbering in the hundreds of thousands while the local population is around 35,000.

“Sabah should have from the very beginning in 1963 insisted that it issues its own identification cards since it has power over immigration as stipulated in both the state and federal constitutions.

“But this was never done, leaving the federal authority instead to have a monopoly to do whatever it likes to alter the political balance in Sabah,” he said adding that something must be done to differentiate between bona fide Sabahans and Malaysianised newcomers.

Ait said that it is only right for an alternative government like STAR to adopt the idea now so that a thorough follow-up could be carried out later, when it forms a new government, and that to make the genuine people here see some security in their own state.