Media statement by Dr. Hiew King Cheu in Kota Kinabalu on Saturday, 11^th August 2012:

Dr M's statement a direct hit-back on himself

It has been a few days after the statement made by the former Prime Minister Dr Mahatir on his blog, and immediately there is a continuous wave of hit back on what he had commented on the RCI and the illegal immigrant issue in Sabah. The people in Sabah did not agree at all on what he had said, and especially on the point that when foreigners became Malaysian, they are "Malays"! If Dr M said that there is no need for the RCI to be established to investigate the influx of Sabah population and on why so many foreigners whether legal or illegal had become citizens of Malaysia, he is going against the will of the Sabahan. Many said it is better for him to keep quiet and be happily retired.

In actual fact, who is responsible for this "doing" and happenings, will up to the RCI to conduct the investigation and inquiry. The committee will have to dig to the bottom of the matter to expose the facts and details. The Project IC has been known and around for a long time, and many foreigners had admitted openly that they have obtained their Malaysian IC through the Project IC program. This will not be hard or difficult for the RCI to prop into the root cause of the issue.

There was a Parliament Select Committee which had been set up to dig into the same problems of the illegal immigrant problems in Sabah some years ago, and it will be useful for the RCI to use some of their findings during that time before this was abandoned by its chairman Tan Sri Bernard Dumpok of that PSC after his resignation.

Dr M has said something irrelevant and contradicting to the issue, and what he said have not only hurt the feeling of the people in Sabah but also insulted the intelligence of the Sabah people. The people have started to doubt about his motive of throwing out those words and comments which seem to be providing a shelter to some one or to cover something. He said the RCI is not necessary, and he also highlighted that for those who had lived here for a long time are qualified to be a Malaysian because they speaks Malay and to be called 'Malays'. What about those many Chinese who are still holding red IC / PR after staying here for 70 years, speaking good Malay and contributed their whole life in building the country, are they not qualified to be granted Malaysian citizenship? There were cases that some foreigners obtained their MYcard just shortly arriving from their own country to here, not knowing a single word of Malay, how to justify this?

The high influx of Sabah population happened during the past 20 years, until today the Sabah population had increased many times from the 650,000 people in the sixties to over 3.4 million people now. There is an estimation of 35% of the population are made up of the foreigners.

What will be the eventual finding of the RCI, and what can they do after the six months of investigation, and this is still to be seen?

* Dr Hiew King Cheu, MP for Kota Kinabalu