KOTA KINABALU: The second forum to discuss the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the presence of illegal immigrant in Sabah was successfully organised by DAP Ranau branch on January 10 at Kampung Paka Dua in Ranau.
The speakers for the forum were DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang, Tan Sri Simon Sipaun, Dr Arnold Puyok of Unimas, Kota Kinabalu member of parliament Jimmy Wong, Sri Tanjung assemblyman Chan Foong Hin and Kapayan assemblyman Dr Edwin Bosi. More than 150 people attended the forum.
Dr Bosi, who is also the DAP Sabah secretary, disclosed this yesterday.
He said that the presence of the two notable speakers, namely Sipaun and Dr Puyok, had provided the forum with a non-political insight into the report of the RCI on illegal immigrants.
Dr Bosi said the many questions coming from the floor reflected the keenness of the people to know more about the RCI and raised questions on the ability and sincerity of the government to resolve the four-decade problem. It was also quite obvious that only a handful of the audience have read the RCI report.
In his address, Lim talked about the seven cardinal sins that are afflicting the nation. He said one of them is the illegal immigrants issue.
Lim said he was not amused when former Chief Minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who has accepted the appointment as chairman of the Working Committee on illegal immigrants, wanted to hear, listen and collect feedback from the public, including opposition parties, on how to resolve the illegal immigrant problem.
“Pairin had been a Chief Minister for nine years and his party, PBS, had passed resolutions after resolutions in their annual congress on illegal immigrants, so how could he not know how to resolve the problem. It is time for Pairin to act and not to talk and wait for feedback,” he said, adding the problems and the way to resolve them are at Pairin’s finger tips.
Lim quipped that if Pairin does not know about the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah, then nobody knows.
The Gelang Patah member of parliament, however, has made some recommendations. To move forward with the RCI on illegal immigrants, Lim wants Pairin to first of all acknowledge that the so-called “Project IC” does exist.
“If Pairin said it does not exist, then there is nothing we can do about the said report of the RCI,” he said.
If the project IC is confirmed to exist, Lim then challenged Pairin to remove the amendment to the Election Act whereby the electoral roll cannot be challenged once it is gazetted. As long as this provision remains in the Act, then there is no way Pairin can clean up the electoral roll from voters who are beneficiary of Project IC.
Pairin should also work towards making the culprits in Project IC (if he has confirmed it exist) to pay heavily for their heinous crime against the people of Sabah and Malaysia, he added.
Lim, who is also DAP Malaysia advisor, also said the government is not showing any serious effort to resolve this 40-year long problem.
“What is so difficult in issuing an appointment letter to Pairin, for example? To show that the government is serious, they should quickly convene Parliament and the Sabah Assembly to discuss this issue of illegal immigrants which in the words of Tan Sri Simon Sipaun is the ‘mother of all problems’,” he said.