Pairin – service with a smile.
AFTER more than a decade of urgings and pleadings by Sabahans that something must be done about the presence of so many illegal immigrants with Blue Identity Cards in their midst, the federal government finally acted. A Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) was appointed to everyone’s relief.
It started work two years ago on an enormous problem dubbed by many as the mother of all problems, which must be solved once and for all.
The expectations of Sabahans were high, at least some authority was in place to thoroughly investigate how the migrants had sneaked into a Malaysian territory in large numbers, with more coming every day. By the year 2000, it was estimated that 600,000 non-citizens had swamped the state. That had thereby bloated Sabah’s population to 2.6 million and thus upset the demographic landscape ‘overnight’.
The Commission was given the job of head counting how many of those 600,000 plus foreigners had been given Identity Cards of sorts and or had become citizens of Malaysia. And by whom?
The RCI has produced a report – yes, there were illegal immigrants; yes, there were syndicates involved in manufacturing identification documents including citizenship papers. Yes, these had been happily issued to the foreigners. Repeat, by whom? Some people had made easy money out of this project. Who?
Sabahans had expected to get answers to these questions but the report is not specific, except a recommendation that a committee be formed to deal with matters relating to illegal immigration. And the government, wise after the event, has quickly appointed a permanent committee under which there is another body of persons to do the donkey job of clearing the real mess. That job is given to poor Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Joseph Pairin Kitingan.
We wish him luck and hope that he would have the necessary freedom to act as his own conscience or the collective conscience of true Sabahans dictates. He must have the help and cooperation of the relevant government agencies.
One hopes that there will be no problems from the present heads of those departments involved in Project IC. Though the black sheep of the departments had been dealt with, including a stint at Kamunting, there may be lambs somewhere. Some of those involved in the syndicates may have passed away and with them also interred their dark deeds from which all good Sabahans have suffered.
I don’t envy Pairin in his job. However, let’s wish him success again. If he should fail, don’t blame him because he is being handed a sick baby almost impossible to cure in a short time.
Pairin’s plea that in the meantime there must not be new illegal immigrants allowed into Sabah makes perfect sense — a job for the Immigration Department and the security apparatus of the country. It will help him in his work greatly to begin with. Give him all the help that he wants or needs.
He will be doing a huge favour for Sarawak if he can clean up the mess in Sabah.
Those syndicates …
Why am I so concerned over this matter?
Because Sarawak is next door to Sabah. The network of syndicates in the north may already have moved south. According to one figure worked out by a Peninsula-based newspaper, there were 62,000 non-citizens in Sarawak in 2000. Now there must be many more. If my information is correct, there are some 400,000 nationals of one country alone working in this state this year, mostly found in the oil palm plantations and timber camps. Please correct me. Until then, trust me as I trust my usually reliable source.
Sarawak’s population has increased tremendously; from 1970 to 2000, it has increased by106 per cent! Where came the influx?
NGO to help monitor
The fear of being swamped by migrants illegal or otherwise is real. Repeat, it is proposed that citizens of Malaysia in Sarawak form a non-governmental organisation to help the government monitor the presence of illegal immigrants in Sarawak.
In each and every village, longhouse or settlement, there should be ‘ears and eyes’ of the Immigration Department and other departments as in the old days just after the formation of Malaysia. The present JKKKs should do the job. Many villages and longhouses have not even completed or updated their individual profiles. I asked one Tuai Rumah when I met him in Kuching recently how many people in his house? He gave ‘agak-agak’ (approximate) figures only. Guess work really.
Those from Celebes
People of my age may remember how the labourers recruited by the Sarawak Land Development Board (SLDB) in 1972 ended up as citizens of the country. SLDB had on behalf of its oil palm development contractors recruited workers from Celebes for deployment on its northern region schemes.
They were going to be sent back to their country of origin after the expiry of their contacts, but that was not done or couldn’t have been done. So they applied for citizenship and got it. They voted during elections while thousands of Sarawakians could not do so because the latter were not registered as voters in their own country.
The 12,000-strong Bangladeshis
We are not told how someone has plucked out that figure required for Sarawak without having determined the exact number of workers required by each plantation company – tree and oil palm. For all we know, these firms prefer to employ workers from other countries.
It looks like there’s a quid pro quo understanding between Malaysia and Bangladesh. Malaysia invests in Bangladesh and Bangladesh sends her excess labourers to Malaysia — oops, to Sarawak — purportedly at the request of the state government; purportedly, at the request of the plantation companies. We cannot tell which is which.
We do not know how long the Bangladeshis will be working here for. Who are responsible for checking on them that they do not run away from their employers and do something else?
One can only assume that the government has taken into consideration human needs of the new arrivals. For these Bangladeshis will be here without wives and families for a period of time, while many of the Indonesian contract workers have brought along their families with them. A sensible idea. In fact, many of their children are of schooling age but there are no schools for them. That’s another thing that the government should consider doing in cooperation with their own government.
Isn’t it time also for the employers to think in terms of providing facilities – a building or rooms in the estate — for the primary education of these children, a basic human right of the child, really.
I’m straying away from my main topic. I know.
I’m thinking of the future of those children of the estates.
A suggestion repeated
Repeat. It’s important that citizens in Sarawak should consider forming an NGO to monitor illegal immigrant workers in the state. This is to help the government with information as to the conditions of the workers at any particular time during their term of contract in the state. It is important to ensure that they happily return to their countries of origin as soon as their contracts have expired.
Repeat. Avoid the neglect in Subis with the men from Celebes.
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