ILLEGALS MENACE WORSENED DURING PBS’S

By: DATUK YONG TECK LEE

IN the few years that SAPP was in the state government, government ACTIONS on solving the illegal immigrants problem were effective. With the involvement of the National Security Council, the full force of the army, navy, police, national registration department, immigration and other agencies and foreign embassies were deployed. Bilateral efforts were made with neighbouring countries to take back the illegals.

Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants were deported using military logistics while tens of thousands left voluntarily to escape the strict enforcement by the authorities. Legitimate foreign workers needed in Sabah with genuine employers were given work passes under the successful 1996 Regularisation Programme whereby Indonesian workers obtained valid passports at their consulates in Kota Kinabalu and Tawau while Filipino workers were issued passports by their consular officers from Kuala Lumpur. Genuine foreign workers therefore had no need for fake documents.

Between 1995 and 1996, a police security operation known as Ops Kenal was launched to crush the fake IC syndicates. Hence, UMNO operatives like Akjan Ali (the self-proclaimed Sultan of Sulu) and many others were detained under the Internal Security Act. For once, there was real hope of a lasting solution to the illegals menace in Sabah. All these achievements are on the official records.

But what has been happening in the last several years is the resumption of issuing Mykads to foreigners, now called ‘IC Najib’. The population of foreigners has shot up to a million, according to the 2010 national census. Ex-ISA detainees like Akjan Ali had the cheek to ‘install’ himself as ‘Sultan of Sulu’ in clear defiance of Malaysia’s sovereignty. And not only the suspect who murdered Joni Somudin cannot be found, even the fake Sultan is missing! Yet, PBS’s Henrynus is still talking about ‘laboratory study on foreign workers’ to be released.

Even UPKO MPs Datuk Wilfred Bumburing and Datuk Markus Mojigoh have testified that the BN government is not serious about solving the illegal immigrant issue. On February 14, the Home Minister Datuk Hishamuddin Tun Hussein revealed that the federal government was waiting for the state response to the federal proposals on the illegal issue.

What were the proposals and why has the state government not responded? PBS has senior ministers in both the State and Federal Cabinets. Surely these ministers know what is happening in the government. PBS leaders must stop misleading the people that the UMNO-dominated BN government will solve the illegals issue.