I have written to the PBS President and Sabah Deputy Chief Minister, Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who is also Chairman of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Illegal Immigrants in Sabah (RCIIIS) Working Committee, inviting him to a forum in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 16th March 2015 for him to present his blueprint to resolve once and for all the 45-year Sabah Illegal Immigrants Nightmare.
Ten months have passed since the RCIIIS presented its report to the Yang di Pertuan Agong and the Federal Government, and more than three months have passed since the RCIIIS report was made public in Kota Kinabalu, but up to now, nothing has been done to resolve the 45-year Sabah Illegal Immigrants nightmare.
In fact, it would not be wrong to say that despite the Cabinet decision to establish the RCIIIS in February more than three years ago in February 2012, and the submission of the RCIIIS Report to Putrajaya10 months ago, there had been no concrete measure to break the back of the 45-year problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah apart from the establishment of ESSCOM and ESSZONE as a result of the Lahad Datuk Intrusion in February/March 2013.
Pairin is no stranger to the issue of the 45-year Sabah Illegal Immigrants Nightmare, as he had been as long in active politics in Sabah as the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah.
In fact, it is not too far from the truth to say that Joseph Pairin’s rise and fall in Sabah politics were both related to the Sabah illegal immigrants nightmare – his rise as the Sabah Chief Minister in 1985 when the newly-formed PBS caused a political shock in Malaysian politics in sweeping Parti Berjaya out of power in 1985 and his overthrow as Sabah Chief Minister after a decade, precisely because of the success of the Project IC and various fraudulent and unlawful schemes to confer citizenship and right to vote to illegal immigrants, many of whom just recently arrived from their foreign lands.
If there is anyone in Sabah and Malaysia who has the most experience with the nightmare of illegal immigrants in Sabah, associating both his political rise and fall because of this one issue, it is Joseph Pairin Kitingan himself – and I do not think there is any politician in Sabah and Malaysia who had signed and sent more memorandum, representation and reports on solutions to the problem of illegal immigrants to the Federal Government in the past four decades.
This was why I was utterly shocked when I read in the press about the speech by Joseph Pairin at the Tawau Parliamentary Chinese New Year celebrations on March 1 that the RCI Working Committee of which he is Chairman welcomes proposals from individuals, NGOs and political parties on how to resolve the illegal immigrants issue in Sabah.
What proposals does Joseph Pairin want with regard to the solution to Sabah’s illegal immigrants nightmare which he had not himself proposed over four decades of active political leadership which included 30 years as PBS President, second Huguan Siou or Paramount Leader of the KDM community, ten years as Sabah Chief Minister and the last eight years as Deputy Chief Minister and now Chairman of the RCI Working Committee for three months, in which capacities he had dealt with all the proposed solutions to end once for all the Illegal Immigrant nightmare in Sabah.
It must be very humiliating that it was reported yesterday that his parliamentary constituency of Keningau had the most number of foreigners possessing fake MyKads.
The problem is not the lack of solutions but the lack of political will to enforce the laws in the land and to eradicate the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah once and for all.
The people of Sabah and Malaysia want Joseph Pairin to do one final service – to use his position as RCI Working Committee and Deputy Chief Minister to ensured that the authorities have the political will to resolve once for all the 45-year illegal immigrants nightmare in Sabah.
Otherwise, the RCIIIS and his appointment as RCI Working Committee Chairman are only the latest sleight-of-hand and trickeries of those in authority, whether in Putrjaya or Kota Kinabalu, to delude Sabahans into thinking that the problem of illegal immigrants is being resolved, when nothing of the sort is being done as in the past four decades and more.
The Monday forum in Kuala Lumpur on the RCIIIS Report will be an occasion for Joseph Pairin, either personally or through his representative, to present his blueprint to end the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah.
The other panellsits of the Forum, entitled “How many are REAL Sabahans – Report on the RCI Report on Illegal Immigrants in Sabah” are:
1. Dr. Chong Eng Leong – the one-man authority on the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah;
2. Peter Saili , former Political Secretary to the Ministries of Finance, Agriculture and Communications;
3. Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader; and
4. Rafizi Ramli – MP for Pandan and PKR Vice Chairman/Secretary-General.
Moderator: Sangeet Kaur Deo.
The forum will be held at Lim Lian Geok Hall, 89-91 Jalan Maharajalela, Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 16th March 2015 at 8 pm.