Kit Siang challenges Ongkili to state plan for Sabah's non-citizens

 

Veteran opposition MP Lim Kit Siang has urged Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) president Maximus Ongkili to tell Parliament how he intended to tackle Sabah’s perennial problem with its non-citizens.

In a statement, Lim (above, left) said it was a “tragedy” for Ongkili to pin a “BN party” as the cause of the problem as PBS did not resolve the issue since rejoining BN between 2002 and 2018.

“Furthermore, (then PBS president Joseph Pairin Kitingan) was appointed chairperson of the working committee on the report on the royal commission of inquiry in non-citizens in Sabah from 2015-2018 and Ongkili was a full-fledged cabinet minister for 14 years from 2004 to 2018,” said Lim.

Lim said it was also tragic that Ongkili “continues to be impotent” in resolving this issue although he is currently the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Sabah and Sarawak affairs.

Lim said that in contrast, he had been speaking about Sabah’s non-citizenship population and the existence of a citizenship-for-votes scheme since 1986.

“I calculated at the time that out of 48 Sabah state assembly seats, 21 were Kadazan-majority, eight Chinese-majority and 19 Malay-majority seats.

“I had warned that if the illegal enfranchisement of illegal immigrants were allowed to take place unimpeded, the electoral complexion could be changed to 16 Kadazan-majority seats, two Chinese-majority seats, and 30 Malay/Filipino/Indonesian seats.

“All these concerns which I had expressed in Parliament in 1986 had come to pass, with fundamental changes in the political demography and socio-economic circumstances in Sabah as a result of the illegal enfranchisement of illegal immigrants, as testified by the report of the royal commission of inquiry,” said Lim.

Last Thursday, Ongkili blamed a “BN party” for being responsible for a citizenship-for-votes scheme. He said that the voter list will need to be scrutinised in order to remove those who are unqualified to vote.

According to the royal commission of inquiry report, those who benefited from the scheme were highly motivated to vote and the scheme was linked to the National Security Council.

The 2020 census revealed that nearly a quarter of Sabah’s population consisted of non-citizens. - Mkini