Unsafe Sabah streets : Take it from activist Harris Ibrahim

SOMETIME in June, 2011, I was in Kota Kinabalu for meetings and some on-the-ground activism.

Yes, I had not as yet been banned by Musa Aman from entering Sabah then.

 Around 1am, I ran out of cigarettes ( yes, yes, I am working on quitting, so please don’t nag me ), and went down to the hotel reception to enquire where the nearest shop was that I could get some.

The receptionist asked if I would like the hotel doorman to get them for me, as it might not be safe.

Puzzled, I asked why it might not be safe.

“A lot of foreigners around, Sir,” he replied.

I laughed it off, said this is our country, and was sure I need not be fearful of foreigners in my own country.

He gave me directions to the nearest 7/11, which did not seem to be too far.

I stepped out of the hotel, walked about 5 minutes, and then quickly returned to the hotel.

Yes, I did not at all feel safe, being stared down by rough-looking foreigners.

It was the receptionist’s turn to laugh.

I gave him the money and asked him to arrange for someone to get them for me.

The long-awaited RCI report on the illegal immigrants in Sabah and the issuance of Mykads and citizenship to them is finally out.

The government, so the Commission has surmised, was not involved in granting citizenship to foreigners through 'Project IC' or 'Project M'.

Funny, I recall that at the height of the sitting of the Commission, a rather agitated Dr Mahathir asserting, rather defensively, that if foreigners in Sabah had been given citizenship, more foreigners had been given citizenship by the Tunku administration at the time of independence of Malaya.

Didn’t he?

The RCI concludes that 67,675 foreigners were issued ICs and 68,703 granted citizenship between 1963 and August, 2013.

Really?

Jeffrey Kitingan has more alarming figures.

According to Jeffrey, the Kadazan-Dusun-Murut population in 1970 was 215,811. By the year 2000, this number had grown to 563,600, an increase of 152% over a 30-year period.

The Malay population in 1970 was 18,362. Over the same 30-year period, their numbers grew to 303,500, an increase of 1,552%.

Could this be accounted for by Mahathir’s call to the Malays in the 80’s to go forth s@#$w and multiply?

I have, in fact, been informed that of the total population of Sabah, now at 3.3 million, more than ½ that number are foreigners!

Yes, the indigenous of Sabah are now a minority in their own land!

Might the claim by the Philippines to Sabah have been attained through nefarious means?

The Commission reports that foreigners obtained ICs to become citizens through the efforts of syndicates and corrupt officials.

Might this be a reference to the Home Ministry officials who were detained under the ISA and never charged lest they name the highest officials of government involved?

The Commission appears to conclude that Sabah’s vast coastline of 1,700 km made it easy for the foreigners to enter Sabah.

Is this then an acknowledgment that the federal authorities have failed to protect the sovereignty of Sabah, even if they were not complicit in the dilution of the political power of the indigenous?

Yes, there has been talk of secession by Sabahans.

Can we blame them?

Umno has decided that it will not endure such talk, and will amend the Sedition Act to deal with such agitations.

Mind you, this is Umno's talk and not the BN government's.

Unless UMNO alone is the BN government, and MCA, MIC, Gerakan and the Sabah parties in BN count for nothing in governance.

Well, yes, that is probably the case.

The response of the federal government to the RCI report?

Two committees.

If I were Sabahan, I would tell the federal government to take their two committees and stick them where the sun never shines.

And I would agitate for emancipation, with all that this term entails.

But then, I am not Sabahan.