RCI HAS BROUGHT SABAH BN TOGETHER

KOTA KINABALU : Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) said all Sabah BN political parties should be credited for their hard work as for the first time in the State's political history, all Sabah BN parties including the leadership in Sabah Umno stood together hand in hand in their key demand for the RCI (Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrants.)

Henrynus also congratulated Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman, for his foresight to set up the Sabah BN committee on citizenship under the chairmanship of Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who is also PBS President which served as the catalyst in the formation of the RCI.

He said as a member of the Sabah BN committee on citizenship, he witnessed how the committee discussed and articulated the popular demand for RCI, and then formulated the terms of reference most of which were adopted by the Federal government.

He said PBS would be mobilising party machinery at all levels to explain to the people the objectives of the formation of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants.

He said the Prime Minister's announcement on RCI provided the Sabah BN solid platform to engage the grassroots supporters.

He said PBS expects all Sabah BN component political parties to cooperate and work closely to ensure the royal probe on illegal immigrants succeeds.

Henrynus has described the successful formation of the RCI and its terms of reference by the Prime Minister as a winnable strategy to counter opposition propaganda and win over the hearts and minds of the people of Sabah.

"The formation of the RCI is clearly a victory for the people of Sabah, and certainly, a historic moment, that will decide the fate of a nation, especially the future history of Sabah," he said in a statement, Monday.

"Announced against the backdrop of decades of relentless efforts or rather frustration, the formation of the RCI reflects the Prime Minister's serious commitment to resolve the perennial problems related to the huge presence of illegal immigrants in Sabah," he said.

He said the RCI announcement is the outcome of a long political process of aggregating grassroots sentiments, articulating issues, formulating appropriate RCI policies and now implementing them.

"But the long pursuit of the RCI has brought all Sabah BN component political parties closer to each other and especially to Sabah Umno which has decisively thrown their weight behind its formation," he said.

Meanwhile, he said PBS was not perturbed by the opposition's desperate attempt to belittle the RCI announcement and will fight any opposition agenda to sabotage its implementation.

He said PBS was not surprised by certain remarks attributed to the opposition leaders critical of the RCI.

He said the revelation that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was in fact against the RCI when he was Deputy Prime Minister confirms lingering suspicion that he is not sincere in resolving the problem of illegal immigrants.

He said on the surface Anwar purportedly supported the formation of the RCI, but at the same time, he is calling for all illegal immigrants to be issued with permanent Resident status.

He said this was a very dangerous proposition as, under the Federal Constitution, a foreigner who has been given a PR status and lives continuously in any part of Malaysia for more than five years, is eligible to apply for citizenship.

"PKR or Pakatan must, therefore, explain their intention to grant Permanent Resident status to illegal immigrants without documents if voted to power."

He said, Malaysia is guided by the principles of "Rukun Negara" and the rule of law and expect the constitutional process of granting citizenship to be respected.

PBS, he said, disagrees with the views expressed by former Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad, that there is nothing wrong in giving citizenship to illegal immigrants who can converse in Bahasa Malaysia.

He said Dr Mahathir's statement was politically provocative as it seeks to justify systematic attempts to change the political demography of Sabah under his administration at the expense of the local indigenous population.

He said Dr Mahathir's use of history to justify free movement of foreigners into Sabah is seriously flawed, and by his own logic, he seemed to justify the Philippines' claim on Sabah or even the Indonesian confrontation policy opposed to the creation of Malaysia.

"If Dr Mahathir seriously thinks that foreigners from neighboring countries can just walk into Sabah without documents and do as what they like regardless of the law, what is the justification for Sabah to be part of Malaysia in the first place?," he asked.