KOTA KINABALU: Angkatan Perubahan Sabah (APS) president, Datuk Seri Panglima Wilfred Bumburing, feels that Sabahans, generally, are disappointed with the Royal Commission of Inquiry report on the presence of illegal immigrants in Sabah which was made public on Wednesday.
Bumburing, in a statement yesterday, claimed that the report had greatly disappointed the people of Sabah, especially when it concluded that the issuance of identity cards was done by syndicates involving corrupt government officials, and for also not making any concrete recommendation on how to address this problem.
The evidence provided by so many witnesses during the hearing proved beyond any reasonable doubt that government elements were involved in the project either directly or indirectly, the Tamparuli assemblyman asserted.
Actually, the report did also said, though inconclusively, that ‘there is probability that the Project IC exist’ based on the testimonies of five former officials from the National Registration Department (NRD).
“If the government had found out that foreigners obtained identity cards illegally, why is it that the government did not confiscate the documents and charge the official(s) concerned?
“Giving identity cards to foreigners is a grave act of treason and the full force of the law should have been applied.
“The government’s non-action on this matter over all these years only goes to show that those officials were covertly receiving direct orders from the government,” he claimed.
“The release of the report is not due to the political will of the government as alleged by UPKO, but due to the tremendous pressure of the people, especially from the opposition,” he said.
“If the federal government is sincere in solving the illegal immigrants’ problem, action should have been taken a long time ago without letting the problem go almost out of hand,” he said.
Bumburing felt that it is very hard to believe that when hundreds of thousands ICS were given out illegally, it had escaped the notice of the government.
The officials detained were not charged in court but detained under the ISA. Nobody had been tried in court and sentenced accordingly, he lamented.
“The setting up of the Permanent Committee of Foreign Migrants in Sabah would not solve the issue of illegal ICs. The committee might be useful for future cases, but what about the past. The setting up of the said committee would only delay the process of resolving the problem.
“Because of the magnitude of the problem I will repeat what I have said that there must be drastic and immediate action, transparent and thorough, to the root cause. There must be a committee comprising of all stakeholders in the state.
“I support the recommendation on the setting up of a consultative council on Immigrants/Foreigners headed by and comprising non-partisans persons. This committee must be accorded with full powers from Parliament.
“I join those who call for the tabling of the report in Parliament to enable the rakyat through their representatives to debate its contents. In welcoming the statement of the state cabinet on the report, I am repeating my call to the state government to convene a special session of the state assembly to debate the report,” Bumburing said.
According to him, the most effective start up on the solution to the issue is to recall all those ICs which are illegally given out and replace with a visiting pass while investigation is proceeding.
Bumburing said he supports the proposal to give Sabah ICs to genuine Sabahans, and he cannot accept the explanation that it is difficult to locate those holding the illegal ICs.
He said the NRD has details of these ICs and they can just declare the ICs illegal and ask those people concerned to surrender them or face arrest and deportation.
“This would, of course, involved expenditure, but in the name of protecting the sovereignty of the country, it has to be done if there is strong political will and utmost sincerity on the part of the government,” Bumburing stressed.