Bumburing Says Sabah's Illegal Immigrants Is The Mother of All Problem

KOTA KINABALU: Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Datuk Wilfred Bumburing said that the exclusion of the illegal immigrant issue in Sabah in the National Key Result Areas (NKRA) was a grave mistake as the illegal immigrants issues has been and is and will always be the mother of all problems in Sabah for as long as the nation’s leaders deemed this issue as not important. This issues has invaded and affected negatively every structure of life in Sabah be it in social, cultural, health, security, educational and economy.

Bumburing said: “It was a grave mistake and disrespect to Malaysian in Sabah by the lab that formulated the top six issues deemed important by the nations when the issue of illegal immigrants in Sabah was deemed not important by the Nation as revealed by Minister in The Prime Minister’s Department, YB Senator Datuk Idris Jala on Saturday. With due respect to Datuk Idris as his job was just to disseminate the information gathered by the lab who probably didn’t have a Sabahan in their ranks and as such the illegal immigrant issues in Sabah was glaringly overlooked. HoIver, he (Datuk Idris) also pointed out that a laboratory in this issues has been established and that it was conducted here in Sabah. In this respect I urge the relevant authority to make the findings of this laboratory on illegal immigrant in Sabah to be made public. On this issue, I would like to make the following observations:

“ When the national laboratory on foreign workers and illegal immigrants was set up, why must a “special laboratory” be set up for Sabah? Why would they consider the problem in Sabah as being a “little different” from the National level? Can’t the Federal Government just formulate a standard policy to address the issue on foreign workers and illegal immigrant for the whole country? The Home Minister was quick in reacting to the case of 20 foreigners who escaped from their detention centre and yet are silent on the illegal immigrants who residing inside Sabah and whose numbers are now believed to hundreds of thousands. What is 20 foreigners who have escaped in Kuala Lumpur compared to a few hundred thousands illegal immigrants residing inside Malaysian lands? I demand an explanation why Sabah is being considered different, is it because of Mykads being issued to illegal immigrants dubiously?

“Along this line, I also urged the setting up of State Key Result Area (SKRA) parallel to the NKRA so that the root of the illegal immigrants problem will be addressed positively. The State government will not be able to solve this problem on their own so is the federal government, so a determined and concerted effort must be drawn by both and done immediately so that this issues will be corrected at the fastest time possible. Prolonging this issues will not be conducive to the government as it is now draining the patience of Malaysian in Sabah.

“Today I met a fifteen year old boy from Matunggong who dropped out of school because the school authorities there have suspended him for two Ieks for not attending school. Even after the two-Iek suspension was over, this boy refused to go back to school. Upon questioning, the boy related to me that he didn’t want to go back to that school for fear of being bullied by certain gangs in the school who extorted money from the local Rungus students. When they don’t have “protection money” to pay these extortionists, they would be beaten up until they pay up. Due to poverty, some of them prefer to drop out of school then be in the company of these “thugs” and this boy told me that these “extortionist students” Ire children of foreign parents. Even our own school located in the midst of our kampungs are no longer safe for our children.

“What is to prevent this illegal immigrants now from claiming rights to Sabah say 30 years from now? Their numbers now almost outnumber Sabahans and their descendants thirty years from today will definitely outnumber the local populations. I have asked in parliament for an explanation on the RM5,300 annual payment paid by the Malaysia to the heirs of the Sulu Sultanate but have not got a satisfactory reply till today. In the early sixties prior to the formation of Malaysia, a referendum approved by the United Nations was carried out in Sabah in which the people of Sabah have opted for independence through the formation of Malaysia. What would prevent the likelihood say in the event 30 years from today the descendants of this foreigners who would outnumbered and overwhelmed the original Malaysian citizens seeking a similar referendum from the United Nations? (See http://tausug-global.blogspot.com

“Combined positive actions by the State and Federal authorities now to solve this issues would save Sabah and Malaysia from this kind of likelihood.”