Niat chairman Thasleem Mohamed Ibrahim has made a startling revelation saying that the late deputy home minister Megat Junid Megat Ayub had asked stateless Indian to go to Sabah to obtain proper documentation.
PETALING JAYA: National Interlok Action Team (Niat) and Jihad for Justice chairman Thasleem Mohamed Ibrahim has claimed that the late deputy home minister Megat Junid Megat Ayub had asked him to refer cases of Indians, without proper documentation, to go to Sabah if they wanted proper papers.
He said whenever he discussed the issue of stateless Indians with Megat Junid, the latter would refer to cases in Sabah.
“I’m speaking out because [former prime minister) Dr Mahathir Mohamad raised the issue of Tunku Abdul Rahman granting citizenship to one million people in the Peninsula before independence.
“I would never have spoken about this otherwise, as Megat is no longer with us. He was my school senior, and often during our conversations, I would bring up the issue of stateless Indians,” he said.
Thasleem said on numerous occasions between 1994 to 1996, whenever he told Megat Jubid that a lot of Indians have been living here for many years without citizenship, his immediate reaction would be: “Don’t waste time, go to Sabah.”
“I was quite suspicious on why he continued to mention Sabah but he repeated this on two to three occasions, claiming that if cases were to be dealt here, some of the stateless people may have to pay up to RM50,000 for their application to be approved,” he said.
“The citizenship should be given to them. These people were born here, they were not smuggled here.
“We just want the government to solve this issue once and for all,” said Thasleem.
Jihad for Justice is a new organisation, established a month ago, and 5,000 people have indicated their support.
PANDANGAN BEKAS ORANG KANAN ANWAR IBRAHIM, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
ReplyDeleteIt is important that the general public waits until the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) completes its work and announces its findings before it draws conclusions about the motives behind the issuance of Malaysian identity documents to foreigners in the past. Only then would people in both Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia have a clear picture of what really happened, and why.
PANDANGAN BEKAS ORANG KANAN ANWAR IBRAHIM, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
ReplyDeleteIf statements by individual witnesses are viewed as the entire truth, we may fall into the trap of subscribing to partial accounts of a complex reality. After all, the statements issued by some witnesses on the third day of the Inquiry were contradicted by subsequent testimonies on the fourth and fifth days. This is what one should expect in an open and honest investigation.
PANDANGAN BEKAS ORANG KANAN ANWAR IBRAHIM, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
ReplyDeleteEstablishing a Royal Commission on such a contentious and controversial issue which has been at the core of Sabah politics for more than three decades was an act of tremendous courage on the part of the Najib Government.
PANDANGAN BEKAS ORANG KANAN ANWAR IBRAHIM, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
ReplyDeleteIt demonstrates a readiness to embrace the truth however painful it may be. It is only when the whole truth is known that the multireligious and multi-cultural people of Sabah will be rid of misgivings, doubts and suspicions which have sullied their hitherto harmonious inter-ethnic ties.
PANDANGAN BEKAS ORANG KANAN ANWAR IBRAHIM, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
ReplyDeleteTo enable the truth to set the people free, they should not overlook a critical dimension in the issuance of Malaysian identity documents and indeed, the conferment of citizenship upon foreigners.
PANDANGAN BEKAS ORANG KANAN ANWAR IBRAHIM, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
ReplyDeleteA significant portion of those who sought refuge in Sabah from the seventies onwards comprised the tragic victims of a protracted war in Mindanao which has just ended. This is the humanitarian aspect of citizenship which a civilised state must uphold if it is genuinely committed to compassion and justice.
PANDANGAN BEKAS ORANG KANAN ANWAR IBRAHIM, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
ReplyDeleteThere are other angles to citizenship which were among the principal considerations in the accommodation of recently domiciled Chinese and Indian communities in Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia) on the eve of Merdeka in 1957.
PANDANGAN BEKAS ORANG KANAN ANWAR IBRAHIM, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
ReplyDeleteTheir role in the crucial tin and rubber sectors of the economy, the threat posed by the largely Chinese communist insurgency, and the need for inter-ethnic cooperation in the drive towards Merdeka were some of the principal reasons why a million Chinese and Indians were conferred citizenship in the twinkling of an eye.
PANDANGAN BEKAS ORANG KANAN ANWAR IBRAHIM, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
ReplyDeleteAs Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has correctly observed, the UMNO elite was even prepared to set aside conventional citizenship norms in order to bring the new
Malayans abroad.
PANDANGAN BEKAS ORANG KANAN ANWAR IBRAHIM, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
ReplyDeleteThis was in stark contrast to the approach adopted by leaders in other similarly divided societies --- societies in which an indigenous-non-indigenous dichotomy had developed as a result of colonial rule such as Indonesia and Burma (Myanmar) --- where the rules of citizenship were stringently applied so as to ensure the assimilation of the foreign component.
PANDANGAN BEKAS ORANG KANAN ANWAR IBRAHIM, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
ReplyDeleteIn Malaysia, on the other hand, accommodation of the other changed the landscape drastically. The people who had given the land its identity through Malay Sultanates that have existed for hundreds of years were now relegated to a community among communities.
PANDANGAN BEKAS ORANG KANAN ANWAR IBRAHIM, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
ReplyDeleteIn other words, by extending citizenship to the Chinese and Indians on such generous terms, the very character of the nascent nation had changed. Adjusting Malay rights arising from this consciousness of a Malay land with the interests of the non-Malays through integration via common citizenship in a larger Malaysian nation has remained the most fundamental challenge of the last 55 years.
PANDANGAN BEKAS ORANG KANAN ANWAR IBRAHIM, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
ReplyDeleteIn a sense, Sabah, by conferring citizenship upon the migrants from its neighbourhood, in the eighties and nineties, has also experienced a parallel, though different, transformation.
PANDANGAN BEKAS ORANG KANAN ANWAR IBRAHIM, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
ReplyDeleteThe non-Muslim Bumiputra component of the population which was the largest segment of a multi-religious society at the time of the state’s incorporation into Malaysia in 1963, lost its lead position to the Muslim Bumiputra component. The angst and anxiety this has created in various circles is understandable and should be addressed with much empathy.
PANDANGAN BEKAS ORANG KANAN ANWAR IBRAHIM, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
ReplyDeleteHarmonising the interests of these two segments with the non-Muslim, non-Bumiputra elements, calls for astute statesmanship and dexterity. In this regard, Sabah is fortunate to have as one of its foremost leaders a person like Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kittingan whose political maturity and wisdom have helped to sustain an appreciable degree of interreligious and inter-cultural peace.
Isu kerakyatan songsang memang merunsingkan.
ReplyDeleteSerahkan kepada RCI untuk membuat siasatan yang wajar. Pasti banyak pihak dikaitkan.
ReplyDeleteIC cuma diberi kepada pihak yang sah sebagai warganegara sahaja.
ReplyDeleteRCI harus membuat siasatan terhadap JPN sebab kes ini berkait rapat dengan Jabatan ini.
ReplyDeletePemberian ic dibuat dengan sewenang-wenangnya.
ReplyDeletekena mengikut cara yang betul.
DeleteMenteri Dalam Negeri, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein mengarahkan semua agensi di bawah kementeriannya untuk memberi kerjasama penuh kepada Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja (RCI) yang ditubuhkan khusus untuk menyiasat masalah berkaitan pendatang asing tanpa izin di Sabah.
ReplyDeleteHishammuddin berkata, pihaknya tidak mahu mengecewakan harapan penduduk Sabah yang mahu melihat satu penyelesaian terbaik dilakukan bagi menangani isu berkenaan yang tidak berkesudahan.
ReplyDelete"Kita akan memastikan matlamat pembentukan RCI ini akan menjadi satu kenyataan dan detik sejarah Sabah. Ini adalah perkara yang amat dekat dengan hati rakyat Sabah sendiri.
ReplyDelete"Daripada segi jangka masa penyiasatan, kita tahu agensi-agensi Kementerian Dalam Negeri akan dipanggil, maka terserah kepada RCI. Kita akan buat apa yang patut," katanya.
ReplyDeleteHishammuddin meminta orang ramai termasuk parti pembangkang supaya tidak mempolitikkan usaha terbabit kerana ia akan hanya merosakkan niat ikhlas kerajaan untuk menangani 'sesuatu yang diwarisi dan bukannya wujud sekelip mata di Sabah'
ReplyDelete