PBS: Illegal immigrant issue could be BN’s downfall
By Michael Kaung, Free Malaysia Today
KOTA KINABALU: The influx of illegal immigrants to Sabah is threatening to weaken the BN’s hold on power in the state, a component party warned today.
Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) secretary general, Henrynus Amin, said the people of Sabah are fed up with the illegal immigrant issue, which is being touted as a BN failure by the opposition.
He said the BN must set a realistic deadline to resolve the matter or it will be held accountable at the next general election.
Opposition parties are ratcheting up the pressure on Chief Minister Musa Aman to address the more than two decades old problem which has now become a full-blown security threat.
PBS president Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who once railed against the problem himself, said during a policy speech last year that the government should resolve the issue by 2012.
PBS is one of the main BN coalition parties apart from Umno that is feeling the heat from the fallout of the issue.
Henrynus, however, was quick to say PBS had never abandoned the issue and that the state government was discussing the management of foreigners in Sabah.
He pointed out that Pairin, a former chief minister, had brought up the problem several times with top BN leaders and at the most recent meeting of the highest BN decision making body.
Henrynus said two years ago, Pairin led a high powered PBS delegation to deliver a memo to the PM seeking his commitment to resolve the illegal immigrants issue in Sabah.
He said the then PBS secretary general, Radin Malleh, had also lodged reports with the ACA (now MACC) and provided information on thousands of dubious ICs issued to foreigners.
