Kit Siang wants details on Pairin’s ’30-year’ secret

“Pairin should explain why he had kept secret the plot to abolish Sabah's immigration autonomy for three decades!”

KUALA LUMPUR: DAP elder statesman Lim Kit Siang has expressed shock that Huguan Siou Joseph Pairin Kitingan, engaged in a war of words with a former Sabah Chief Minister Harris Salleh on Borneo rights, has kept a secret for 30 years on the Berjaya Government’s plans to abolish the state’s immigration powers.http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2015/03/16/pairin-tells-harris-not-to-harp-on-lost-sabah-rights/

“I never knew that the Federal Government then under Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was planning to abolish Sabah’s immigration powers, although Harris as Sabah Chief Minister surrendered Labuan to the Federal Government in 1984,” said Lim who is also DAP Parliamentary Leader and Gelang Patah MP. “Nobody seems to know that there were plans from before 1985 involving both the Federal and Sabah Governments to abolish the state’s immigration powers.”

“Pairin, Harris and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak should confirm whether the Berjaya Government was on the verge of surrendering Sabah’s autonomy powers on immigration to the Federal Government. There must be documentation on the subject.”

He also urged Mahathir to come forward on the issue.

Pairin, in reminding Harris on why he was ousted in 1985 as Chief Minister, reiterated that it was under the latter’s Berjaya Government that the state’s rights were slowly eroded until very little was left. “He should not say that I did not protest over the state’s rights being taken away, if at all, and that I was misleading the people.”

If it had not been for him, as Chief Minister from 1985 to 1994, Pairin pointed out that even the special immigration powers vested in the state would have been taken away. “Actually, I should not be wasting time defending myself,” added Pairin. “The Berjaya Government was on the verge of surrendering Sabah’s immigration powers before it was ousted from power.”

“Some of us in Berjaya stopped it and asked for three years to think it over.”

Luckily, he continued, his 45-day-old Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) wrested the reins of power from Berjaya and that put paid to the Federal Government’s plan to abolish the state’s immigration powers.

Pairin, who is also a Deputy Chief Minister and PBS President, was commenting on Harris’ take in the local media that “Pairin and others should shut up on the issue”. He wanted specifics on what rights had been taken away from Sabah by the Federal Government.

Harris reiterated that it was the PBS Government, under Pairin from 1985 to 1994, that was “responsible for Sabah losing its rights”. It’s not known whether the jury is still out on this “pot calling the kettle black” statement by Harris.

Immigration a Federal matter under the Constitution.

The question of the Berjaya government surrendering Sabah’s immigration powers to the Federal Government does not arise, assured Harris, since immigration was a Federal matter under the Constitution.

“What appears as State control over immigration in Sabah and Sarawak, however, comes from Clause 9(3) of the Federal Constitution which states that:

“So long as under this Constitution any other State is in a special position as compared with the States of Malaya, Parliament may by law impose restrictions, as between that State and other States, on the rights conferred by Clause (2) in respect of movement and residence.”

Harris said the freedom of movement conferred by Clause 9(2) was therefore restricted through the application of Clause 9(3) in the case of Sabah and Sarawak. He said this special provision clearly relates to Item Six of Sabah’s 20-Point submission, for example, pertaining to immigration.