Slugging it out over illegal immigrants

Local parties in Sabah are splitting hairs over
who did and did not do enough to resolve the
perennial illegal immigrant problem while in
the ruling BN government, says a SAPP member.

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA BELUD: A well-liked local lawyer today defended former Sabah chief minister Yong Teck Lee against accusations that Yong did nothing to try solve the problem posed by the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in the state.

Peter Marajin said that Yong more than anyone else had in just two years that he was in power made strenuous efforts to address the decades-old issue that he inherited.

He said that Yong’s record on the issue of illegal immigrants was transparent, given the limited period he was in office under the chief minister’s “rotation” system implemented by the Barisan Nasional (BN) after it came to power in 1994.

Marajin came to the defence of his Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) boss after allegations surfaced in the BN, which is under fire for failing to tackle the issue, that Yong himself had failed to solve the problem.

BN partner, Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), has launched an all-out attack on Yong after coming under criticism itself over the issue.

Its vice-president Herbert Timbon Lagadan has for several days now bombarded the local newspapers with statements attacking Yong for trying to champion Sabah rights now when he was allegedly “friendlier” to illegal immigrants during his tenure.
Timbon praised another former chief minister, Chong Kah Kiat, of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), who he said did much better than Yong on the issue.

But Marajin, a SAPP supreme council member, said that PBS and Timbon were splitting hairs over the issue.

“Yong was the chief minister for only two years. What could he do within two years to solve a deep-rooted problem perpetuated by Kuala Lumpur?” he asked.

No room to manoeuvre

Marajin pointed out that like the current BN component parties, Yong and SAPP were under the watchful eyes of Umno, had no room to manoeuvre and had to follow KL’s orders.

“Even though Chong made the illegal immigrant problem one of his priorities to solve as CM, did he manage to solve it? The answer is a big no.

“Why? Again it was the political masters who refused to solve it. Why? Because they rely on these illegal immigrants as their political lifeline to perpetuate political power in Sabah and the country.

“Now PBS has been in the BN government for 10 years. Has PBS done anything to solve this perennial problem? The answer is no. Its leader especially, Joseph Pairin Kitingan, only touches this subject once a year and that is during the party congress in which he foams in the mouth during his keynote address to the delegates,” Marajin alleged.

Marajin claimed that the whole leadership of PBS then becomes mute on the subject until the next congress or only when it serves a selfish purpose.

“Pairin repeats the same issue again and again every year but remains silent in between. What does this mean to the people in general?” he asked.

Providing the answers himself, he listed out the reasons why PBS cannot act on the issue.

“One, PBS has no guts to tell its master-cum-partner, Umno, to solve this problem once and for all for the sake of the real Sabahans.

“Two, PBS is also beholden to the master just like SAPP when it was sleeping in the same bed with Umno (that is, it is the master who calls the shots, and the servants cannot do anything).

“Three, PBS leaders only pretends to solve the problem but they know they are powerless to do anything but toe the line.

“Four, PBS leaders especially Pairin raises the issue at every party congress purely to boost the sagging spirits of his supporters so that they would continue to support the party and his leadership. This way, his position in the government and that of his cronies are assured and not in any way jeopardised.

“And, lastly, Timbon is only making the allegations to please the master so that in the process his own position is maintained indefinitely, ” Marajin said.