Release the RCI Report on Sabah Illegal Immigrants

By admin-s On Apr 22, 2014

Is the Federal Government, as usual, waiting for the right timing to release the findings so that it can use the occasion for its own political leverage? Or is it holding back because the recommendations may be detrimental to its own position?

Kee Thuan Chye

Kidnappings and illegal immigrants – these are issues that are closely related, because they raise the pressing question of how secure Sabah’s east coast really is. So when a Chinese tourist and a Filipino worker were abducted by gunmen from Singamata Reef Resort off Semporna on April 2, proving once again that marauders from around the surrounding areas and the Philippines can easily penetrate Sabah’s eastern border, the incident also reminded us how easily illegal immigrants have been hopping into Sabah over the decades.

This naturally led to another question. A Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) was established in 2012 to finally investigate the issue of Sabah’s illegal immigrants, and it concluded its hearings on September 20, 2013. But after seven months, we have not yet been told what the six-man panel have recommended. When will the RCI findings be revealed?

In any case, one supposes the Federal Government is not in a hurry now to address the illegal immigrants problem in Sabah because the 13^th general election (GE13) is already over and the Barisan Nasional (BN) state government was retained without suffering major casualties. Besides, despite the fact that the issue has been of great concern to Sabahans for the longest time, it is, on the other hand, something the Federal Government would rather ignore. Looking back at the many years of nonchalance it displayed towards the incessant lobbying of Sabah political parties, including and especially those within the BN fold, for the establishment of the RCI, we can see that this is true.

It took the defections to Pakatan Rakyat in July 2012 of Wilfred Bumburing, a former deputy chief minister of Sabah from Upko (United Pasok Momogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation), and the then federal deputy housing and local government minister Lajim Ukin from Umno, both saying they had lost faith in BN ever wanting to solve Sabah’s many long-standing problems, including the illegal immigrants issue, before action on the RCI was finally taken.

Fearing further defections ahead of the impending GE13, Prime Minister Najib Razak, who had several months earlier mentioned the possibility of an RCI on the issue, finally announced on August 11, 2012, that the RCI would proceed.

Then, Najib did it out of urgency and political need. But now he has the luxury of time to release the report when it is expedient for him to do so. But will the report make a radical difference, anyway? Will the panel’s recommendations be bold? More important, if the recommendations called for drastic action to be taken to once and for all solve the perennial problem, would the Government apply them? Or would it, as in the V.K. Lingam RCI and the one calling for the establishment of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), sweep the whole thing out of reckoning?

After all, from the testimonies of the 211 witnesses at the RCI, we have seen how shocking some of their revelations are. And how incriminating they are of BN leaders.