KOTA KINABALU: Tuaran member of parliament Datuk Seri Panglima Wilfred Bumburing has expressed doubts over the assurance given by the Attorney General on action that will be taken after the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah has submitted its findings.
The former United Pasokmomogun KadazanDusun Murut Organization (UPKO) deputy president opines that the assurance is just another echo of the so many assurances given by the federal government in the past with regards to the illegal immigrant issue in Sabah.
“The response by the government to my memorandum which I gave to the Ministry of Home Affairs, for example, is basically a denial response. Back in 2008 when the call for the government to take action on the issue, the government under new prime minister then, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Rajak, set up an action programme steered by a special task force.
“However, the whole exercise was just a political gimmick as it just disappeared after a few months. The Attorney General has not explained why the National Registration Department and the Immigration Department refused or was directed not to attend the hearing when called by the Parliamentary Integrity Committee,” he said.
Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail had assured that the government will act on any report or resolution by the RCI.
He told reporters after attending the Opening of the Legal Year 2013 at the Tawau Court last week that where there were criminal elements involved, action would be taken, and wrongs would be righted.
Bumburing, who now heads Angkatan Perubahan Sabah (APS), was of the opinion that the refusal by the two key departments to attend the hearing gave rise to major unanswered questions on the government’s attitude toward the illegal problem in Sabah and was a blatant contempt of parliamentary authority of the country.
He pointed out that even the Secretary of State of the United States of America had to appear and defend its government’s policy and action before the congressional committee on the Benghazi attack which led to the death of some American diplomatic staff, including the ambassador.
This shows the high level of accountability of the US government to their people, he stressed.
Bumburing pointed out that President Barrack Obama had just announced the new immigration policy of his government publicly in front of a crowd saying “the time has come to fix the system that has been badly broken so many times”. He added “This time, action must follow. We can’t allow immigration reform to get bogged down in endless debate”.
The announcement was a fulfilment of his recent campaign promise to the people of America. He also explained that the new policy was a result of an “emerging broad base consensus of business leaders, labour leaders, faith leaders, law enforcements and members of the Democratic and Republican parties”. The policy specified three immigration reforms, better enforcement of immigration laws, providing a path or process to citizenship and reforming the immigration system, he said.
“In Malaysia, we need an RCI to respond to the outcry from the people. If the government is indeed responsible, then action should have been taken right from the beginning to protect the sovereignty of the country,” he said.