Madius Tangau
KOTA KINABALU: Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Madius Tangau demands the Sabah Immigration Chief to come clean on the issue of renewal of IMM13 documents to “Filipino Refugees” in Sabah.
“We want to know who instructed the Sabah Immigration to do so?” asked Madius, who is also the President of UPKO.
“As far as I know, Sabah State Cabinet have never discussed the matter. In fact the renewal of IMM13 documents in Sabah were supposed to have been stopped in 2013,” he said, adding that UPKO remains steadfast in its stance that there must no longer be renewal of IMM13 documents to the “Filipino refugees” in Sabah.
In fact, he said the party is pushing for the recalling of Sabah IC for a long time.
“As most of us recognize that the problem of illegal immigrants had been a bane to Sabah and Sabahans for as long as we can remember; and their arrivals have brought with it a lot of speculation; so why is the Immigration renewing and legitimizing their stay now?
“Whose instructions and prerogative is this?”, he questioned.
In a statement issued by Madius today, he explained Article 26 reads that “The Federal Government may by order deprive of his citizenship any citizen by registration or by naturalization if satisfied that the registration or certificate of naturalization ….(a) was obtained by means of fraud, false representation or the concealment of any material fact…”
“This being said, all efforts must be made to strike off all Malaysian documents obtained contravening the Federal Constitution. Among them, UPKO has been urging the Government, that IMM13 holders and their children with blue IC’s be struck off, also to include any who have MyPR (red IC’s included).
“IMM13 is a timely reminder for Sabahans to seek full restoration of immigration autonomous right enshrined under MA63.” added Madius.
He concluded that UPKO has been advocating for the withdrawal and reissuing of the Identity Card because in the interest of justice and to uphold the sanctity of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia.
”We have both a legal and moral obligation to do so,” he said.