The Illegitimate Citizens of Sabah, a force to be reckoned with

Several weeks ago, a leader from PR faction in Sabah issued a statement ‘all illegal immigrants will be sent back when PR takes over’. I, however reckon that threatening the ‘illegal immigrants’ would not be at PR best interest. Not in Sabah.

 

 

First of all, lets define what is ‘illegal immigrants’. It is well known that the term ‘illegal immigrants’ here is not referring to those recently arrived immigrants who do not have proper travel documents and who may be hiding somewhere in constant fear of being arrested. The term (at least in the context of the discussion) is actually referring to all the immigrants who were granted a citizenship in illegal (or dubious at best) ways. As such, for all intents and purposes, they are no more immigrants or illegal at that. That is why, I coined the term ‘Illegitimate Citizens’. The fact is, once they get the genuine MyKad, they are a citizens! How they got the MyKad – that will be a story for another day.

For we know now, these illegitimate citizens are no more hiding or cowering, fearing to be captured and sent back to their countries. They have been here for several decades, married among themselves, married to locals, breeding offspring of their own. They have build their business, invested heavily and become part and parcels of Sabah’s socioeconomic frameworks. They have got themselves involved in politics and become leaders at various levels. They are employed and became an important workforce both in public and private sectors. In short they are very much part of us.

Therefore, the issue of sending them back is not only impossible but could be jeopardising the nation’s security.