KOTA KINABALU: Filipinos and Indonesians who came to Sabah before the State’s independence on August 31, 1963 should be accepted as Malaysian citizens, according to Umno Sepanggar divisional head Datuk Jumat Idris.
He also said that everyone should endear the fact that the different races and ethnicities in Sabah exist together harmoniously.
“We admit there are many Sabahans whose parents were originally from The Philippines and Indonesia. They have different accents prompting many of us to judge them as illegal immigrants.
“We can’t just simply pull out their tongues to speak like us because that is their culture and that is how they talk among their brothers and sisters. I think Sabahans should start accepting these people and recognise them as Malaysians,” Jumat said at the launching of a ‘Juara Rakyat’ programme at Kampung Kuala Menggatal yesterday.
He said the people should accept the multi-racial concept practised in Sabah ever since time immemorial which had prompted Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to laud Sabah as an exemplar of the 1 Malaysia concept.
Describing the demands by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) for free and fair electoral process as no longer relevant and overtaken by events, Jumat said the demand for the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate into the huge presence of illegal immigrants in Sabah would suffice and the matter had been raised by a BN component party in Sabah, the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (UPKO) under the leadership of Tan Sri Bernard Dompok.
He commented this as a reflection of sincerity of BN as a responsible government and the component parties within the coalition would carry out the necessary checks and balances without succumbing to any pressure mounted by the opposition.