Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing
KUCHING: Sarawak will not allow Sabah’s ‘Project IC’ issue to happen in the state and risk leaving its sovereignty in the hands of foreigners.
Alarmed by a news report that there were an estimated 300,000 Indonesian illegal immigrants in the state and a claim by Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong that foreigners were crossing the borders illegally, Land Development Minister Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing urged the authorities to verify these facts.
He said if there was any truth to it, then it was the duty of the state government to get these aliens out of the state.
“If it is true our state is overrun with illegal immigrants and we are not doing anything, Sabah’s Project IC will be repeated here in Sarawak.
“It means one day this government will be controlled by illegal immigrants. Sabah’s population used to be less than us. Their population has shot up over the years and now they have a million or so more than us.
“If we don’t stop the influx of the foreigners and nip the problem in the bud, we will have what happened in Sabah happening here in Sarawak. What this means is the security of the country will come under threat.
“That was how the Lahad Datu incident happened,” Masing told The Borneo Post yesterday.
On Yong’s recent debate in the State Legislature Assembly where she claimed illegal immigrants were crossing the borders into the state without documents but were given passports and other documents after arrival, Masing said if there was truth in Yong’s allegation, he personally would use all means in his power to stop this from happening.
“We cannot allow anyone without valid documents to enter Sarawak. If what Yong said has an iota of truth in it, I will not allow that to happen because that is the beginning of a problem that we are going to have. The problem will not emerge during my time, but your time and your children’s time.”
On news reports that they are 300,000 illegal Indonesian workers overstaying in Sarawak, he urged the authorities concerned, including the Indonesia Consulate here, to work together with the state government to find a solution.
Understanding that planters might take advantage of the situation and employ some of these illegal workers, Masing suggested the solution to the problem was to offer these workers documents for daily entrance into Sarawak.
“We must legalise them. Singapore doesn’t have enough workers. They allow Malaysians to travel there by allowing day trips.
“In the morning, the Malaysians will enter Singapore and evening, they return back to Malaysia.
“That is the best solution. There are many plantations near the border areas. There can be some kind of arrangement to allow these Indonesian workers to enter in the morning and leave in the evening.
“Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) may be set up along the border to monitor their entries. The advantage of such arrangement is, firstly, we can monitor them and, secondly, they will not bring their family in.
“We would not have problems with them staying here with their children born here.”
Sarawak still cannot afford to reject Indonesian workers totally because of heavy dependence of Sarawak’s plantation industry on Indonesian workers.
“Our plantation will not be able to survive if we depend on locals.
“Without foreign workers, Salcra (Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority) projects would not be able to move forward.”
The dependence of the plantation industry on foreign workers is due to the fact that the culture of local workers failed to fit into the plantation industry.
“Plantation industry is very discipline. When it is time to fertilise the tree, you must fertilise it. When the fruits are ripe, you must harvest it. It cannot wait because the workers have to attend weddings or they have ‘bad dreams’ and thus should not be working.
“Foreign workers don’t have such culture. They don’t have many weddings to attend and ‘bad dream’ would not stop them from working.
“Then foreign workers will work from 7am to 5 or 4 pm in the afternoon but not local workers, who work from 7am to 1pm and after that they would go tend their own gardens.”
According to The Borneo Post dated April 17, the Indonesian Consulate office here had appealed to all Indonesian illegal immigrants in Sarawak, estimated at 300,000, to make full use of the Voluntary Deportation Programme introduced by the Malaysian Immigration Department.
ends/..