Media statement by Dr. Hiew King Cheu in Kota Kinabalu on Wednesday, 7^th December 2011:

Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrant a must

The Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman is not supporting the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate the illegal immigrant issue in Sabah. He chooses to say that the Pakatan Rakyat supporting the RCI is merely aiming at gaining a political mileage. He also mentioned that "it is up to the authorities to decide on RCI", he must have forgotten that he is the "Authority".

CM Datuk Musa Aman as the Sabah Security Council Chairman should be the righteous person to raise the issue and be the first person to recommend and support the setting up of the RCI. It is a big surprise that the UMNO and its Chief Minister in Sabah turned a deaf ear and blind eye on the requests from many people, parties, association and including his BN component parties like PBS and UPKO.

The approval of citizenship, Permanent Resident, and control of the immigration power is still under the direct control of the Chief Minister of Sabah. This is provided in Malaysia Immigration Act 155, 1959/63, Special Provision for East Malaysia Part VII. It is his jurisdiction to approve or reject on all applications. In the past, many people have been granted the citizenship via the many ex-CMs, and some people were banned from entering and asked to leave Sabah too. This is definitely the laws to protect the Sabahan's right and this is why the Immigration power in Sabah still remains as the jurisdiction of the state administration.

Some people blamed the Semananjong for approving big numbers of immigrants to become new Sabahan, and just for the first half in 2011 there are some 91,190 foreigners had become new Sabahan which including Pilipino and Indonesian. We guessed that our CM must have missed this and knew nothing about it, but how can this be, and how can this go through without his notice? There must be certainly some serious abuses of power. Why so many foreigners suddenly became Malaysian on our land in Sabah, and he has no notice of it? He better explain to the people in Sabah whether it is "blanket approval" or closed eye approval?

During the new voter registration, I personally had seen Pilipino coming to register as new voters holding new MYcard with a special code number 15 in the middle of the MYcard number, and for the Sabah state code is 12.

This is truly reflecting that there is something wrong and everyone knows that the influx of the Sabah population is unbelievable. There were many cases that were reported and indicating that some individuals in Sabah were helping the illegal immigrants to obtain Mycard. May be this is the reason that we are multiplying at such a rapid rate by making many foreigners to be new Sabahan?

The call for the RCI is valid and should be supported at all costs and means, if we want to see our future protected and secured. As the head of the Sabah Security Council, CM Datuk Musa Aman has the duties to do the right thing to support on the setting up of the RCI, and allow it function full and to investigate into the true reason. It is most important to expose those culprits and bring justice to punish them. His objection to the RCI looks as if he is hiding some facts.

* Dr Hiew King Cheu, MP for Kota Kinabalu