Sarawak Should Learn From Sabah's Bitter Lessons

Kota Kinabalu:     “The Sarawak government should learn from the bitter lessons from Sabah and thread with caution in opening up Sarawak to foreign labourers approved by the federal government” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief, commenting on the various responses regarding the federal approval of 12,000 Bangladeshi workers to work in Sarawak.

The Sarawak government should retain control over approval of foreign labour and impose its own terms and conditions in accordance with the Sarawak Employment Ordinance and control of its Immigration rights and not let the federal government determine the approvals.

Look and learn from the Sabah experience before it is too late like in Sabah where there is an uncontrolled influx of muslim foreigners, ultimately, given Malaysian ICs and voting rights in Sabah.   And as they say, the rest is history.

The demography of Sabah has been changed forever and the political franchise of the local natives is now taken over by foreigners entered into the electoral rolls.

The dubious issuance of Malaysian ICs not in accordance with the law and entry of ineligible foreigners into the electoral rolls started in the 1980s and 1990s to topple the ruling PBS government were well documented and proven by witnesses as set out in the RCI Report.

At the moment, the local Dayaks, Ibans, Melanaus, Bidayuh, Orang Ulu, Kenyah, Lum Bawang and other ethnic communities in Sarawak still enjoy a certain level of autonomy undisturbed by foreigners.  This could all change very quickly if uncontrolled by the Sarawak government.

No one can say for certain that the federal government will not do a similar reverse ethnic cleansing in Sarawak to displace and outnumber the local natives with muslim foreigners.  Hopefully, there is no such sinister intention.

In Sabah, the situation has even gone to the stage where fake Sabahans with fake ICs including Pakistanis are arrested in Malaya.   And more recently, Pakistanis are arrested with fake long-stay social passes given by rogue Immigration officers in Sabah.

The Sarawak government will do well to learn from Sabah’s past mistakes and ensure that only Sarawakians can chart their own future and destiny and not by foreigners as in the case of Sabah now.