KOTA KINABALU: Deputy Home Minister Datuk Lee Chee Leong’s denial of the existence of Project IC in Sabah is a slap on all the state Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties that have been raising the issues all this while.
Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) deputy president Datuk Eric Majimbun believed it was a pre-planned denial statement to protect Umno after a Sabah BN component party, UPKO, which during its congress last weekend demanded for the setting up of the Royal Commission of
Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
Majimbun, who is also Sepanggar MP, said the denial was a big slap on UPKO Tuaran MP Datuk Wilfred Bumburing who had submitted a detailed report on the issue including Project IC to the Home Affairs Minister a year ago that had never been answered.
“Now the answer comes from his deputy minister from MCA protecting Umno,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Majimbun said that Lee’s asking for proof on the issue was also a blow to all BN component parties, especially Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) who always preferred to be vocal about the issue from within.
“Yet it’s proven loud and clear that Umno as the major decision maker could not bother as long as they satisfied their need,” he said.
He said that for Lee to ask for proof was absurd since the memorandum from UPKO, books by Mutalib MD and Dr Chong Eng Leong were good enough.
“I have, several times, highlighted the same issue in Parliament and tabled the issue of IC of Jerom Majimbun in BN meetings to the former and present PM but they failed to take any action,” he said, adding that the government still practises a denial syndrome and purposely takes side with the ‘mother of all threats’ .
Majimbun said this was a classical example of federal leaders coming to Sabah to just do whatever they like as if Sabahans are ignorant of issues that affect their rights and livelihood.
In fact, federal leaders of this kind were ignorant of the issues that affected Sabahans, he said.
“The deputy minister’s statement is a prelude to stop the formation of RCI … now MCA, as a servant of Umno, is trying to please its boss, by covering what is the reality of the Sabahans’ problem,” he said.