APS WANTS GENERAL HEARING ON PATI

By : DATUK SERI PANGLIMA WILFRED M. BUMBURING.

IT HAS been over two months since the formation of the RCI and yet the commission has not started to conduct hearing testimony in Sabah. So far they have only announced that they had identified those who are going to be called to testify. Datuk Liew Vui Keong had confirmed this in Parliament.

It is very unlikely that The commission would be able to complete its job since they were given only six months to do their task by the government. In view of the number of illegals in Sabah and the huge numbers of documents to be uncovered and examine.

We are doubtful if the commission will ever complete their job to its satisfaction and to fully fullfilled the demand of the people which would include a comprehensive solution to the problem.

We also want to know why the commission is not conducting an open hearing and allow every body who want to come forward to offer testimny to be given such the opportunity to do so.

If the commission is restricting the hearing to a predetermined number of individuals or parties then their investigation will fall far short of what is expected by the people.

We also want to see that the departments concerned namely the National Registration Department and the Immigration Department must be called to give testimonies and answer questions posed by the commission.

We don’t want to see a repeat of what happen during the hearing of the Integrity Committee where these two departments just ignored the call by the committee to come forward to provide important informations.

If these two departments refused to appear before the commission then the head of the department, the Ministry and the government at large must be held fully responsible.

If the government wants the RCI to do a comprehensive job then extra funds should be provided to enable the commission to fully carry out its function, however but I did not see that kind of funds reflected in the 2013 budget.

We can expect the high expenditure in facilitating hearings and to facilitate people to come forward to testify. The RCI should not restrict their work in calling people to come forward to testify but to visit where they are working or residing.

From what we have observed so far we are of the opinion that government just want a hush-hush job in order to pacify the people. However we are sure the people of Sabah is the final judge as to whether the government is really serious in this matter.