KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Law Association (SLA) will be assisting the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the presence of illegal immigrants to look into the law that required a Permanent Resident leaving Malaysia to apply for a re-entry permit.
Its representative, Datuk Ahmad Abdul Rahman, said that in the early 1970s, the permit which has a three month validity was compulsory and the holder must return within that time frame.
“If you come back after three months, you will lose your Permanent Resident’s status,” he told the Panel yesterday.
“SLA will assist the Commission to look into the matter,” he said to which Chairman Tan Sri Steve Shim extended his gratitude to the association for its assistance.
The issue of the re-entry permit arose during questioning of the 55th witness, Petrus Malong, who said that although he had already obtained a Red identity card which identifies him as a Permanent Resident, it was changed back into a green one.
Petrus, who is from Flores, East Indonesia, said he came to Sabah, then North Borneo in 1962 to seek employment.
Together with 50 other people they sailed to Tarakan and from there, paddled all the way to Tawau, a journey that took them about one month.
In Tawau, he was initially sponsored by a Chinese man, who became his employer for three months which is the validity period of the bond. After three months, he applied for and was issued with a British passport as Malaysia had yet to be formed.
He worked around the district before ending up in Wallace Bay where in 1972, the new Sabah Government had sent a group of officers from the Registration Department to the island for a registration exercise.
Petrus told the Commission that his employer advised him to apply for Permanent Residency which he did. He later had the PR changed into a Red identity card.
When he tried to change to a Red KPT (kad pengenalan bermutu tinggi) he was instead issued with a Green Identity card that is given to Temporary Residents.
Petrus said that he did not know why it was so, prompting the Conducting officer Jamil Ariffin to ask if he had left Sabah for a long period of time before applying to change the identification document.
“I went back to Flores in 1972 and spent 10 days in my hometown. I had to apply for a re-entry permit from the Indonesian Consul in Tawau and was issued one with a three-month validity,” he said.
It was then that Ahmad told the Panel that it was a law at that material time and offered SLA’s assistance.