Don’t undermine credibility of rci in Sabah – Masidi

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KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun has called on the people in the country not to start undermining the credibility of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) that will investigate problems related to illegal immigrants in Sabah.

“We should give the RCI the benefit of the doubt…we don’t want people to start undermining the credibility of the RCI, otherwise our request for a RCI will be an exercise in futility,” he told reporters after attending the ministry’s breaking-of-fast function, here, Wednesday night.

He was asked to comment on the statement by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad yesterday where the latter defended the increase in the number of migrants in Sabah, pointing out that they qualified to be citizens because they had been staying in Malaysia for decades and spoke Bahasa Malaysia.

Last Friday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said he would announce the details of the much-awaited RCI when he visits Sabah this weekend.

Masidi said the people were not happy with the explosion of population in Sabah, saying “it is rather alarming compared to other states”.

According to replies provided in Parliament last year, Sabah’s populace numbered 651,304 in 1970 and grew to 929,299 a decade later. But in the two decades following 1980, the state’s population rose significantly by a staggering 1.5 million people, reaching 2,468,246 by 2000.

Masidi said there was no such thing as a “short cut” to obtaining citizenship, and the provisions of the law must be fully complied with at all times.

“I believe the terms of reference of the RCI would include ways of tackling the issues, especially pertaining to the claims that people in possession of citizenship may be doubtful. That’s why we come up with this RCI.

“If a person qualifies as a citizen…it’s for us we accept it as such. It’s not only practised in Malaysia but also in other countries. This is not something peculiar to Sabah,” he said.

Masidi stressed: “What is important is the law must be respected and the provisions of the law be fully adhered to in granting citizenship.” “There are no two ways about it.” – Bernama