What do Sandakan candidates think of Sabah's migrant woes?

SANDAKAN POLLS | Since the 1970s, Sabah has been grappling with new arrivals from neighbouring countries often without the proper paperwork.

According to the Statistics Department website, Sabah currently has a population of 3.899 million of which 29.71 percent are categorised as "non-Malaysian citizens".

A check on the same website would suggest that the non-citizen population in Sabah rose at 3.45 percent per annum between 2010 and 2018, faster than the growth of the Sabahan bumiputera community (1.54 percent).

The same period saw the total Malaysian population grow an annual rate of 1.4 percent while the population of Sarawak rose by 1.29 percent per annum.

Sandakan, where a by-election will be held on May 11, has a sizeable population of non-citizens as well. In the case of Kampung Berhala, many of non-citizens residing there have no access to education and public healthcare.

In view that immigration is often a political hot potato in Sabah, Malaysiakini has asked both main candidates in the by-election - Linda Tsen (PBS) and Vivian Wong (DAP) - a set of the same questions on this topic. 

Their responses are as follows:

Do you think the present government has done enough to handle immigration problems?

Linda Tsen (PBS): I think they have not done enough. Because this is a very major and serious issue in Sabah. It has haunted Sabah people for a long, long time.

Vivian Wong

Vivian Wong (DAP): Definitely we are paying more attention compared to the previous government. We look at the issue seriously. We are bringing the issue into Parliament and you have been following up on it.

My late father also spoke on this issue and quite a few times regarding stateless children in Sandakan and Sabah. We are still yet to find a solution. We are doing things step-by-step.

What about the previous government?

Tsen: They have done something. They set up an RCI (royal commission of inquiry) and all that. Why don't you ask our (elections) operations director? He would know better.

Wong: I don't want to comment on the previous government as I want to focus just on Sandakan and Sabah.

But I think the new government will be doing a better job compared to the previous government.

Linda Tsen (in cap)

What is the end result that Sabahans would like to see?

Tsen: Of course, we would like to see Sabah without any illegal immigrants. As I told you, this issue has been haunting the Sabah people for a long, long time.

Stateless children are also a very big issue. If I do win, of course, I will have to bring up this issue again to Parliament

Wong: We want to see fairness and everyone in Sabah and Sandakan wants to see fairness.

We can't neglect the rights of Sabahan and Sandakan people but we also need to show humanity towards stateless children.

That's our point on fairness.

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Editor's Note: In 2014, the RCI had found that there was a syndicate selling identity cards to migrants and hence contributing to the state's population boom. A technical committee headed by then PBS president Joseph Pairin Kitingan was tasked with to executing recommendations by the RCI. - Mkini