Stalking the stateless in Sabah

Two young Malaysian women have doggedly pursued and now produced a contentious video documentary detailing the dire straits of stateless people and their children in Sabah.

KUALA LUMPUR:  Undocumented, stateless people fall in the abyss between law and human rights.

Since last February’s shocking invasion by Sulu terrorist from neighbouring Mindanao, the stateless Suluks and Suluk-Bajaus are being hunted by authorities seeking to flush them out and send them back to their respective countries.

The law, is not kind to the poor and anchorless.

The DiAmbang: Stateless in Sabah documentary follows the tale of two families – Ebelyn  Salih, a Suluk-Bajau, and Abdul Han, a Bajau sea gypsy – in Lahad Datu, incidentally the site of the bloody Feb 9 invasion.

The video is pending release as its producers, Vilashini Somiah, 29 and Azliana Aziz,28, are in urgent need to raise US$10,000 , through   http://www.kickstarter.com/…/di-ambang-stateless-in-sabah to pay for copyrights on news clippings, music scores and final touch-ups

Speaking to FMT recently Vilashini  said she and Azliana, who is from Johor,  have been working on the idea for many years.

“We couldn’t do it earlier while we were studying in Universty Malaya because of the sensitivities involved. No one wanted to touch the issue.

“I am a Sabahan and was exposed to these people growing up. As a child, I watched them through the window of my father’s car, flooding the streets of Kota Kinabalu.

“I’d see them sleeping in bus stops or begging for food. It was a strange but common sight and as an adult, I grew very interested in their community, especially since it became an increasingly sensitive subject.

“But I didn’t realise the political implications of their presence until  I was much older,” said Vilashini, who together with Azliana, is pursuing her second masters degrees in Ohio State University in USA.

She said the Malaysian government has “under-reported this issue for years”.

“Their  inaction has led to racial and political tensions in Sabah. Although risky, I knew this story had to be documented,” she added.

Lahad Datu, where it all began

According to Villashini, they began lobbying for support for their project the moment they started semester in Ohio University.

“We spoke to many people and finally two years ago got the go ahead to do this video documentary,” she said.

They met up with another colleague Mathew Filmore, a freelance cinematographer and video editor and collectively began planning the project.

“Lahad Datu was the location because the eastcoast is where the Suluks and Bajau sea gypsies are. Its where the story begins.

“We began shooting in two parts, first in 2012 and then  in 2013,” said Vilashini,  adding that coincidentally they were in Lahad Datu during the Kpg Tanduoa incident in February last year but kept a low profile because the security forces were strict with the media.

The video documentary – DiAmbang: Stateless in Sabah  - stalks the lives of  Ebelyn and Han.

Ebelyn of Suluk-Bajau descent has five children and lives in hiding in a Bajau slum. Her husband was caught and deported to the Philippines. The family is now in limbo.

They have no identity documents as such can only take up informal jobs as and when.

Following last February’s  Sulu incursion in Lahad Datu, life has become even harder for Ebelyn as help even from within their community has reduced.

The DiAmbang: Stateless in Sabah website notes Ebelyn’s predicament;  ”with an ongoing Suluk-Bajau feud among Filipino migrants in Sabah, being a family of mixed heritage has put a strain on relationships in either community.”

The second case study is on Han and his family. Han is a Bajau sea gypsy. His boat is beached in Lahad Datu because he has no funds to repair it.

A plan backfired?

Han lives in his boat with his wife Telurina and four of their five children. They have no documents and without such identification, the couple can’t seek formal employment.

They do odd jobs and rely on donations to survive.

But they now face an uncertain future, as citizenships are required to take advantage of any means of improving their lives.

Both Ebelyn and Hans constitute Sabah’s poorest of poor.

In the late 1980s and 1990s a contentious project – Project IC – had enabled tens and thousands of civilians running away from war torn Muslim Mindanao and neighbouring Indonesia to secure backdoor citizenships in Sabah.

The identity cards were allegedly given to ensure ruling Umno’s continued presence in Sabah and to re-engineer Sabah’s dominant Christian population.

Today, these legalised illegal immigrants overwhelm Sabah.  Natives are now a  minority.

In January last year, a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the immigrant situation was initiated which saw incriminating testimonies  from project recipients.

The RCI also heard testimonies from former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former chief ministers Pairin Kitingan and Harris Saleh.

The outcome  is expected to be known sometime soon.

Against this and incessant attempts by the authorities to hunt down the stateless, the immigrants seeking greener pastuers continue to sneak in through Sabah’s porous borders with the help of a decades-old and systematic grassroot network.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1118390113/di-ambang-stateless-in-sabah

https://www.facebook.com/diambangfilm