Press Statement by Dr. Hiew King Cheu in Kota Kinabalu on Tuesday, 30^thJune 2009:

PR for Sarawakian and West Malaysian in Sabah

The Kota Kinabalu Member of Parliament Dr. Hiew King Cheu received many complaints from people originally moved from West Malaysia to live and work in Sabah some 30 years ago, and until now they were not granted with the status of ‘Permanent Resident’ (PR) in spite of the many years of application submitted.

These people were complaining about the trouble-some procedure of renewing their stay and work permits to stay and work in Sabah, especially for those who had been in Sabah for the past 30 over years. Every year they have to renew their pass and permit over and over again. Many of them are actually no different to the Sabahan now, because they have been working, contributing, having family, properties and deeply involved in the development of Sabah, but until today they are being treated as ‘foreigners’ due to the Immigration Act in Sabah.

When Hiew presented the case to the Minister of Internal Affairs on why they cannot be granted the Permanent Resident status, the answer given was that the power of granting the PR is under the jurisdiction of the Sabah State government for those who had moved from West Malaysia to Sabah many years ago. The Federal government has no power over the matter. All the application must be refer to the Sabah Government.

Dr. Hiew viewed the many cases of not being given the approval on the application of PR for the many thousand of people from West Malaysia and Sarawak residing in Sabah for more than 30 years as unreasonable. They are the people who had contributed much to Sabah and brought up new generations of young in Sabah, but they are still being treated as foreigners like the Indonesians and Filipinos. Many of the illegal immigrants had obtained PR status quickly, and even those who had no identity document were given ‘green card’ by the government recently to stay and work in Sabah. Is it true that our fellow West Malaysian and Sarawakan people not better than these illegal immigrants or foreigners?

We must allow these people to settle down in Sabah because they are a real part of us, and we should thank them for their past contribution to Sabah, and we owe it to their younger generations. With all the young as Sabahan, and the parent still need to apply work pass and stay permit, that is ridiculous and totally not right. Sabah government should review the cases and grant the PR to them.

* Dr. Hiew King Cheu, MP for Kota Kinabalu