RCI TO HELP SOLVE POPULATION RIDDLE

RANAU: The formation of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants and fake identification documents in Sabah announced by the Prime Minister recently is a huge gift in conjunction with the Tadau Kaamatan this year.

State Rural Development Minister, Datuk Dr Ewon Ebin, said the RCI could be likened as a good harvest.

The RCI, he said, is very important especially to provide answers to why the population in Sabah suddenly increased in just a short time.

The population in Sabah in the 1970s, he said, was only about 750,000 with the Kadazan, Dusun and Murut communities making up almost half the figure or 350,000.

"But the Census in 2010 showed that the population in Sabah has increased drastically but the KDM community numbered only about 750,000 when the combination of other races reached two million," he said.

In this respect, he said the RCI would be useful in providing answers to the overwhelming number of illegal immigrants and also allegations concerning false documents.

"I hope that through the RCI, the issue of the sudden increase in Sabah's population and also false identification documents would be resolved," he said when officiating at the Tadau Kaamatan at Kg Sinarut, here.

Meanwhile, organising chairman, Jaibi Dualis, said the celebration of the Kaamatan in Sinarut is very significant because it was the first celebrated in the village after the last celebration 14 years ago.

The celebration in Sinarut saw Nazira May Osman Leong being crowned the Unduk Ngadau while Mira Noor Azmida Jasnin, second, and Georgenia Bonggi, in third place.

Ewon also announced an allocation of RM30,000 to improve the water pipe system in the village.