KOTA KINABALU: Sabah opposition leader Jeffrey Kitingan believes Deputy Home Minister Azis Jamman is not telling the truth about the Philippine government refusing to take back its own citizens from the state.
Jeffrey, who is Keningau MP, said it is inconceivable that the Philippines would not want to accept its own people.
“As a country, it is duty-bound to work with Malaysia on this serious matter.
“And it’s very unbecoming of a Malaysian deputy minister to speak as if he is doing so on behalf of the Philippine government. He ends up appearing to make excuses,” he said in a statement here today.
He added that the Philippine officials had provided consular services, including providing passports here previously.
Azis had said that many holders of the IMM13 document – issued to those who originally came to Sabah as refugees, fleeing the civil unrest in the southern Philippines in the 1970s – prefer to remain in the state.
He said many of these document holders, who are mostly second and third-generation descendants, do not have any more family ties in the Philippines and prefer to remain in Sabah, where they have been since birth.
This is one of the reasons why they are rejected by the Philippine embassy and are not able to be repatriated, he added.
“The problem is that the Philippines does not want to accept them. When the embassy interviewed them, they said they had no one in the Philippines and they would prefer to stay in Sabah,” he said, adding that he was told this by a former immigration director-general.
Jeffrey, who is also Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR) president, said the government should work with the United Nations to solve this refugee issue.
“Refugees are normally under the UNHCR and their repatriation (after the war) should also be discussed with the UN agency to resolve problems of repatriation.
“They can also send them to Third World countries. The UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) has a representative office in Kuala Lumpur. So why not cooperate with it?”
Jeffrey contended that what Azis was trying to do is make up an excuse, similar to that by Chief Minister Shafie Apdal that the Sabah Temporary Pass (PSS), to be given to about 600,000 foreigners, will not make them qualified for citizenship.
“I have asked why they want to give a pass valid for three years, instead of just one?
“And how is it that there are no specified conditions attached to these passes? Do they function as work passes? Will the holders have rights to own properties? Will they be allowed to move about freely?”
Jeffrey said this could be a factor in the still on-going claim on Sabah by the Philippines.
“If the Malaysian government wants to walk its talk about being fair to Sabah, why not show it by distributing these 600,000 foreigners equally to all 11 states in Peninsular Malaysia?” - FMT
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