Press Conference Statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, after his arrival in Sandakan on the Fourth stop of his Sabah political trip on Friday, 11.7.1986
DAP call s for a two-prong solution to the menace of illegal Filipino and Indonesian immigrants in Sabah, including a state-wide verification exercise to flush out and expatriate every illegal who had frasulently become Malaysian citizen.
Illegal Filipino and Indonesian immigrants in Sabah pose a short-term as well as long-term problem and dangers to the people of Sabah and Malaysia.
Short-term, the illegals create law and order problems as in the commission of crimes like burglary, armed robber, murder and rape, and socio-economic problems as in displacing Malaysians in governmental social services and facilities, as educational and health services, and in terms of employment opportunities denied to Malaysians.
But the most serious threat posed by these illegal are long-term, in particular with regard to their ability to change the power structure in Sabah and Malaysia not only to choose Assemblymen, MPs but also State and Federal governments because of widespread incidence of these illegal fraudulently acquire Malaysian identification and citizenship papers, including the voting right.
When the Sabah Foundation Chairman, Dr.Jeffrey Kitingan, was in the Philippines recently, it was reported that he discussed with the Philippines authorities the problem of the 250,000 Filipinos in Sabah.
In 1976, Berjaya came to power and toppled USNO largely because of the illegal immigrants issue. Again in 1985 and 1986, the same illegal immigrants issue became the chief cause of the verthrow of the Berjaya government.
However, up to now, there has been no firm action to deal with the root cause of the illegal immigrant problem, which is as serious as ever. I was Tawau yesterday, and the people there complained about how blatant the illegal immigrants were in committing crimes. They will knock on houses to demand them to be opened up for them to commit armed robbery or burglary or otherwise they will burn down the houses.
Where is the Sabah of 20 years ago Sabahans live in peace and safety, and can leave their houses open without fear of burglary and armed robbery, let alone murder and rape? IS this the progress and development brought about by the Barisan Nasional?
The DAP propose to make the illegal Filipino and Indonesian immigrant issue one of its central issue in the Federal Parliamentary elections.
There must be clear and decisive action to solve the problem of illegal Filipino and Indonesian immigrants. The DAP suggest a twp-prong attack to resolve this problem once and for all, namely:
1. To arrest and repatriate every illegal Filipino or Indonesian immigrant to their country of origin; and
2. To conduct a state-wide vertfication exercise to identity and ‘flush out’ every illegal immigrant who had acquired fraudulent Malaysian identification and citizenship papers, and even the voting right, so that these fraudulent ‘bumiputeras’ could be exposed, stripped of their false citizenship status and expelled from Malaysia.
When I was in Tawau yesterday, I received complaints from green identify card holders, Chinese who came from Indonesia about 25 years ago, but who have not been given Malaysian citizenship status.
These hens of thousands of green identify card holders are hard-working and law-abiding people, but the government has refused to conduct an operation to grant them Malaysian citizenship as they fulfil all the requisitie citizenship qualifications. Yet, illegal Filipino and Indonesian immigrants are allowed to acquire citizenship status, becoming voters and decide the political, educational economic future of Sabahans and Malaysians. Where the justice?
The Federal government should conduct a special exercise to grant citizenship papers to the green identify card holders. Is the Barisan Nasional prepared to give this pledge in its general elections manifesto?
DAP calls for greater justice to Sabah and Sarawak by the establishment of a full university each state
The people of Sabah, as well as Sarawak, have the right to demand that the Federal Government give them a better deal in the distribution of socio-economic and educational benefits.
In this regard the DAP calls on the Barisan Nasional Government, in its general elections manifesto, to pledge itself to the establishment of a full university each in Sabah and Sarawak by before 1990. Why should Sabah and Sarawak have only branch campus of some university in Peninsular Malaysia? Surely, the people of these two states are entitled to have a University Sabah Malaysia and a University Sarawak Malaysia, and have a Sabahan and Sarawakian to become Vice Chancellors!