DISCOURAGE
....'Negative discussions' and comments will discourage witnesses who are yet
to give evidence from coming forward, claims UPKO.
By : QUEVILLE TO
PENAMPANG: A frazzled United
Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) has urged the public to
refrain from gossiping and making comments about the Royal Commission of
Inquiry (RCI) hearing on illegal immigrants until it is completed.
The plea comes as the Sabah
Barisan Nasional coalition partners come
under increasing scrutiny by their supporters over their collusion with Umno to
form what many now believe to be an “illegal” government.
The Sabah BN component party
along with counterparts Parti Bersatu Sabah, Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah and the
Liberal Democratic Party are all struggling to explain their presence in the
coalition in the light of damning evidence that they all benefited from a
government-sponsored citizenship-for-votes scheme implemented in the 1990s.
Upko’s plea is the umpteenth
overt call from the state government to stifle public debate and reports of the
ongoing inquiry.
Sabah Chief Minister Musa
Aman has also called in newspaper editors and warned them against 'sensationalised'
reporting of the proceedings.
Local and national English
and Bahasa Malaysia language newspapers have largely obliged.
Upko’s deputy secretary-general
Lucas Umbol has justified the call, saying that “negative comments” could
discourage the witnesses who are yet to give their evidence from coming
forward.
He was responding to the
scepticism expressed by some quarters on the integrity and independence of the
RCI to investigate the extraordinary increase in the population of Sabah by the
BN administration.
“Witnesses who have
testified so far have been giving their evidence and statements with ease
without fear or favour.
“Therefore all quarters should
withhold their comments as their comments could intimidate incoming witnesses
and prevent them from giving evidence without fear.
“No one should make any
conclusion at this point in time because there are still many more witnesses to
come and members of the RCI need to be given ample space and time to complete
their investigation,” said Lucas, a member of the party’s Tenom division.
He said comments and
opinions should only be given after the RCI had completed its public inquiry
and the report was written and made public.
Damning evidence
Witnesses giving testimony
at the RCI, many of whom were senior federal civil servants, have startled the
country with their disclosures that the federal government had a hand in the
massive population explosion of the state, especially in the 1990s, which was
mainly done to ensure Umno and the BN would take and keep control of the state.
Former prime minister Dr
Mahathir Mohamad, who was in power at the time, has since declared that “there
was nothing wrong” in giving tens of thousands of immigrants in Sabah
citizenship as long as it was done legally.
However, witnesses have
revealed that in many instances the operation to grant citizenship and voting
rights to immigrants and operating out of Kuala Lumpur did not seem to follow
legal procedure and was done in a furtive way.
Many BN party supporters are
asking awkward questions about how their party leaders could justify their
presence in the coalition in the light of the testimonies that government
candidates had benefited from the votes of the “new Malaysians” in past
elections and in the process had disenfranchised Sabahans.
Lucas added, however, that
the present BN administration led by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak had proven
that it wants to set matters right by establishing the RCI on the issue.
“The Najib administration
represents a new and transformed government. Najib is genuinely implementing
political transformation as evidenced in the government’s decision to abolish
several laws which have been described by various quarters as draconian such as
the Internal Security Act (ISA) and the Universities and University Colleges
Act and the like.
“Surely, the prime minister
must have faced various challenges in arriving at the decision to establish the
RCI.
“However, the challenges are
understandable because the extraordinary increase in the population of Sabah is
historical in perspective and all of which happened during the tenure of two
previous administrations,” he said.
He also disclosed that the
party’s secretary-general Madius Tangau, who has been outspoken on immigration
problems faced by the state, has been subpoenaed to appear before the RCI as a
witness.
The public inquiry is set to
resume today after a week’s break. (FMT)
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