Illegals in Sabah still a festering issue

This is Kadazan country: it’s sleepy and bucolic with small hills, streams, bamboo groves, fruit orchards and houses on incredibly tall stilts.

Of course, over the years the rustic atmosphere has changed as apartment blocks, housing developments and shophouses have started nibbling at the edge of this rural idyll.

Dompok is expected to arrive at any moment to officiate at the annual meeting of the Penampang Cocoa Planters Association. There’s a rush as he steps out of his car and walks into the hall. He is surrounded by his supporters.

The meeting begins with an impassioned rendition of the national anthem Negaraku, after which it’s an informal affair.

During the speeches, Dompok and the local state assemblyman Donald Mojuntin break into Kadazan, cracking jokes in between the more serious parts of their speeches.

Later, over lunch with the minister, I find myself popping milk chocolate-coated al­­monds into my mouth (we’re at a cocoa promotion event, after all). However, the creamy hot chocolate drink after the meal wasn’t enough for this coffee addict.

With the 13th general election around the corner, the Kadazan, Dusun and Murut communities (collectively dubbed KDM) have become an increasingly important part of the ruling Barisan Nasional’s Parlia­mentary calculations.

Currently, 22 of Sabah’s 26 parliamentary seats are held by Barisan – an integral part of the coalition’s East Malaysian “fixed deposit”.

Of these, six are majority KDM in composition and seven either majority Chinese or mixed with non-Muslim majorities.

Indeed, Sabah is a complex patchwork of loyalties, ethnicities and religious affiliations.

However, a long-running issue concerning illegal immigration has once again risen to the fore.

The KDM and Chinese communities have been questioning the dramatic rise in the number of Muslim Sabahans over past decades – an increase that has altered the power equation in the Land Below the Wind.

The issue strikes at the core of what it means to be Malaysian, not to mention the intrinsic value of our citizenship.

It also raises other questions: can we be Malaysian and Christian? Can we be Malaysian and Kadazan? What is our collective identity?

While nothing has been announced officially, Barisan is broadly in agreement about the need for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on alleged illegal immigrants in Sabah.

Nonetheless, the terms of reference on any potential RCI remain unclear. As a consequence, many in the KDM communities are waiting anxiously to see when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak will make an announcement on this issue.

As one observer explained: “This has become the mother of all problems in Sabah. The KDM communities want the RCI. They want to know what’s been happening over the years. It’s all about transparency, integrity and sincerity.”

However, there’s no doubt that a full-on inquiry might well unearth extremely compromising material on what’s been happening under previous administrations and there’s a degree of uncertainty in Barisan circles.

As one Umno insider said: “The RCI can’t be an excuse for a witch hunt.”

Dompok has himself been among the most straight-forward on the issue – much as he’s been on matters of religious freedom.

He told me during lunch: “It’s important that the announcement on the RCI should come before the dissolution of Parliament. The RCI mustn’t be seen as window dressing. The people appointed should be seen as credible.

“I’ve put my political life on the chopping block. If this isn’t resolved, my position in the Cabinet will be untenable. Besides, the act of not proceeding with the RCI will say a lot about the Government’s attitude to the KDM communities.”

At the same time, he’s more than aware of both the sensitivities and the complexities of the issue, of how the issue of illegal immigration is often tangled with that of undocumented citizenship.

In a separate speech to the Upko party congress last month Dompok had said: “We must welcome registration of Malaysian citizens who have not received identification documents.

“I would like to emphasise that we are talking about bona fide Malaysians. I am talking about people in mixed marriages whose children have yet to obtain their birth certificates.

“I will support all efforts by the Government in registering Malaysians and for them to get the necessary documents that they are entitled to as Malaysians.”

Listening to Dompok over lunch, I’m suddenly reminded of the vigour and enthusiasm with which the assembled crowd had sung the Negaraku earlier.

As I leave the Dewan, I can’t help wondering whether the KDM communities are just ano­ther embattled minority pushed increasingly into the periphery? Will the RCI serve to re­­verse this sense of alienation, or only increase it?

Whatever the case, political developments in Sabah will have implications for Malaysia as a whole.