Study finds Pairin’s Committee on RCI Report wanting

The solutions to the illegal immigrant problem in Sabah do not lie with the Federal and Sabah governments.

KOTA KINABALU: The Independent Monitoring and Action Committee (IMAC) on the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) Report has found the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the Working Committee on the Report, headed by Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan, wanting.

The IMAC, comprising three political parties and 21 NGOs, has come up with six additional TOR which they stressed were based on feedback from the public. In a letter to Pairin, the IMAC stressed, that it wanted the additional TOR incorporated in Pairin’s present TOR.

The IMAC members included Bingkor Assemblyman Jeffrey Kitingan, Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) President Yong Teck Lee, and Tamparuli Assemblyman Wilfred Mojilip Bumburing.

The IMAC stated in its letter that the solutions to the illegal immigrant problem in Sabah did not lie with the Federal and Sabah governments. “They cannot be relied upon given that stakeholders in both governments have vested interests not to resolve the problems.”

Strong political will would be needed, continued the letter, to formulate the right solutions. “There’s a need for transparency, more stringent laws and heavier penalties within the shortest possible time.”

For starters, the IMAC said it wanted a special session of the Sabah Assembly and Parliament to be convened to debate the RCI Report, its findings and recommendations.

The IMAC also wanted the Federal Government to make available to the public all records of proceedings of the RCI and the exhibits, memorandum and submissions by witnesses.

Briefly, elsewhere, the IMAC wanted the Pairin Committee to clean up electoral rolls by weeding out unqualified “voters” who had been registered using illegal ICs or genuine ICs dubiously given, including ICs that had been obtained using false declarations and to allow political parties and NGOs to monitor the cleaning up process by the Election Commission.

It also wanted the Pairin Committee to scrutinise and identify all dubious ICs and MyKads that had been issued to unqualified foreigners based on their false declarations and information, including about 200,000 numbers identified in the RCI Report.

Other salient points:

To issue a Sabah IC to Sabahans and genuine Malaysians who were permanent residents in Sabah. This could be done by setting up a Sabah Registration Department under a new Sabah Registration Enactment; and

To investigate and prosecute culprits who had been implicated in the RCI Report, as being involved in Project IC, and any other illegal issuance of citizenship documents to illegals and other unqualified foreigners.

The IMAC noted that there was no better time than now to come up with long lasting solutions to the problem, “and to achieve it, no effort should be spared”.

“The people expect it.”