What’s my future, Malaysia?

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Apr 12, 2010

She’s never been to school. There isn’t one where she lives.

By SABM

She’s twelve years old. Bronzed skin, hair bleached from the salted sun. We didn’t manage to get her name; she was with her girl friends – carefree and full of cheer – at the Kota Kinabalu waterfront just beside the Handicraft Market that afternoon. They came and willingly jumped in front of the camera, making hip-hop poses like teens from the ‘hood. She was chatty, just like any other healthy girl except for one big difference.

She’s never been to school. There isn’t one where she lives. She cannot read nor write. She knows rudimentary arithmetic – simple addition and subtraction. Ditto her group of friends. Each morning the girls leave their homes in the settlements at Pulau Gaya and come ashore to the city’s waterfront seeking menial work – dishwashing, food prep and packaging. Promises of the dreams of a high-income economy and the NEM would be pretty meaningless for people like them. In most likelihood, a frustration will build up as the world passes them by. And then what?

Could this be the timebomb that Project IC planted?

How fair is it that these children, innocent of any crime, be deprived of a promising future because of negligence by their hosts, willing or unwilling?

We were with Sabah activist Dr Chong Eng Leong that afternoon in mid-March before the SABM Sama-sama Roadshow. The former Sabah senator and practising surgeon had offered to explain to us at SABM what he considers one of the biggest issue facing Sabah for over two decades now – foreigners and Project IC. And the best way was to see for ourselves.

Project IC, or more pointedly Project M, refers to the “allegation of systematic granting of citizenship to immigrants (whether illegal or legal immigrants) by giving them identity documents known as IC (identity card), and subsequently, MyKad” (Wikipedia). It is alleged to be a covert exercise with its roots in the early 1990s to alter the demographics of Sabah to make it more favorable to the ruling government and certain political parties.

Much has been talked about in the warongs and kopitiams and to some degree the media, yet investigations over Project IC never reached a satisfactory momentum nor conclusion. Dr Chong believes the evidence is damning and all around in the daily life of Sabah. He self-published a book, Lest We Forget (Security and Sovereignty of Sabah), in July last year, an effort which compiles hard facts and newspaper clippings to advance the awareness of Project IC.

The Handicraft Market itself is a place filled with lively paraphernalia – beadwork, carvings, silverware and fabric. “Most of these are not produced in Sabah. They’re brought in mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines,” said Dr Chong, who’s comfortable jumping from one local dialect to another. And the people who sell them? “Filipinos, largely,” he added. “You can tell from the dialect they speak.” Incidentally, the Handicraft Market was known as the Pasar Filipina until recently. The locals still call it by that name.

“Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against foreigners,” said Dr Chong. “They are human beings who seek a better life; borders mean nothing to them. It is the lack of a political will in both the Federal and State governments to resolve this problem that gets to me,” said the former politician. “They refuse to even acknowledge it’s a problem.”

Saturday afternoons at the markets flanking the KK waterfront is a casual affair. Tourists stroll the walkways toting cameras, families finish buying their day’s groceries, the smell of pickled vegetables and fresh fruit intoxicates. On a cemented planter, male bonding takes place over a game of chess.

A line of tailors steal a nap during the lazy, shady hours. It’s quite a delight seeing those vintage Singers still in use.

And as a solitary machine goes ‘shik-shik-shik’ in the background, the issue about Sabah’s fragile fabric crops back to mind. In a territory that saw the population increase by a stupefying 301 percent in 30 years (1970-2000), it is a phenomenon that surely needs to be investigated closely. Especially since neighbours Sarawak grew by 106 percent, and Brunei 157 percent in the same time-frame.

“Sabah’s borders were deliberately kept porous. You could enter and leave it like a sieve,” said Dr Chong.

“They were considered a vote bank. I have collated the reports and evidence in my book,” said Dr Chong. “Look, in those 30 years the Kadazan-Dusun-Murut community grew by 162 percent – a population growth that makes sense. But those classified as Malay grew by a staggering 1,552 percent. Federal government hasn’t given any solid explanation for that.

“But the worse thing is the humanitarian aspect. You’re brought in as a vote bank, you’re offered MyKad, given Bumi status, perhaps resettled somewhere and that’s it. You are expected to remain grateful. No education for your children. No proper sanitary system. No refuse collection – rubbish is disposed in the sea or burned in some common dumpyard nearby. It’s an epidemic waiting to happen.”