By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary- General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Saturday 14.9.1985:
DAP calls on the Task Force on Illegal Immigrants to set a target to deport at least 20,000 illegal immigrants a month until end of 1986
The announcement by the Acting Prime Minister, Datuk Musa Hitam that the Task Force VII would extend its scope to deal not only with the Vietnamese boat people, but all illegal immigrants, is the most concrete action taken so far to deal with the grave problem of illegal Indonesian immigrants.
The illegal Indonesian immigrants, which I estimate to be in the region of one million in Malaysia, is a threat to the peace and order in Malaysia, poses a short, medium and long—term danger to the political, economic and national stability, and could undermine the nation—building process as well. Recently, they have been found to be a cause of the malaria come—back in the country.
The problem of illegal Indonesian immigrants was one of the issues I raised with Datuk Musa Hitam when I met him in his office in Kuala Lumpur on August 29, and I hope that the revamping of Task Force VII would be followed up with firm action and positive results to free Malaysia from the menace of illegal immigrants, in particular the illegal Indonesian immigrants.
The Deputy Home Affairs Minister, Radzi Sheikh Ahmad, said in Parliament in July that 11,715 illegal immigrants werd arrested and deported last year, out of whom 7,330 were Indonesians. This is a ridiculous figure, which probably does not amount to even one per cent of the total illegal immigrant presence in the country.
I call on the Task Force on illegal immigrants to set a target to deport at least 20,000 illegal immigrants a month until the end of 1986, to break the problem of the illegal Indonesian immigrants and other illegal foreigners in Malaysia.
If the Task Force wants to know how this could be done, the DAP is prepared to offer suggestions and ideas.
The DAP has formed a National Committee on illegal Indonesian immigrants, Filipino refugees and other illegal foreign nationals under the chairmanship of the DAP National Assistant Organising Secretary, Hu Sepang (Negri Sembilan Assemblyman). The DAP National Committee on illegal immigrants is prepared to work closely with the Task Force and the government to free Malaysia from the menace of illegal Indonesian immigrants and other illegal foreigners.
It should be obvious to the government by now that it is not possible to have such a massive presence of illegal Indonesian immigrants if large numbers of Malaysians had not helped and harboured them, probably making money out of these anti—national activity bring them over from Indonesia and providing shelter to them.
The DAP calls on the Government to introduce severe laws in next month’s Parliament to make it a custodial offence for any Malaysian to aid and abet the entry of illegal Indonesian immigrants, or to harbour or employ them. I believe this will go a long away to solve the problem of illegal Indonesian immigrants.