KOTA KINABALU: A former chief minister has proposed that Sabah should have its own identity card (IC) to resolve the perennial issue of dubious citizenship.
Datuk Yong Teck Lee said lingering problems remain over questionable citizenship documents purportedly issued over the years to illegal foreigners in Sabah.
“We don’t have to waste time and go back and debate (these documents) all over again... because the RCI (Royal Commission of Inquiry) on Illegals already published its findings and recommendations in 2014,” he said in a statement on Wednesday (April 9).
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The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president said the RCI's findings are backed by facts, documents and witness testimonies, with many confessing to having been born outside the country but given Malaysian citizenship status in the 1980s and 1990s.
He said one of these witnesses even went on to become a leader of the Sabah chapter of a political party from Peninsular Malaysia.
“Based on his standing, he was even appointed to the board of a Sabah government-linked company (GLC). This kind of nonsense must stop,” he said.
Yong said that from 1995 to 1997, fake IC operatives were detained under the now-abolished Internal Security Act and since then, some have passed away.
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“Many fake IC holders also returned to their home countries of their own accord,” he said.
On the proposed Sabah IC, Yong said there is nothing in the Federal Constitution, the National Registration Act 1959, the Immigration Act 1959/63, or the Passport Act 1966 that forbids the issuance of such cards as they would be meant only for Sabahan Malaysians, not foreigners.
He said the same acts of Parliament and provisions in the Constitution confer the status of distinct zones to the territories of Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia.
A Sabah IC would not grant citizenship to non-Malaysians as this can only be given by the Federal Government, he added.
“So what is Sabah waiting for? Digging up old issues without offering a solution only serves to distress the people and distract the government from solving the daily economic and infrastructural problems faced by ordinary people,” Yong said.
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He stressed that the issuance of a Sabah IC to Sabahan Malaysians can distinguish genuine Malaysian citizens who are Sabahans from non-Sabahans who have been granted Malaysian citizenship.
To remove all doubt, those foreigners granted Malaysian citizenship may remain as Malaysians, but they are not Sabahans and still need Sabah immigration control, as practised currently, he added.
“Genuine Malaysians from the peninsula and Sarawak who have settled in Sabah for many years may also be granted a Sabah IC, only at the discretion of the Sabah government,” he said.
Citizenship typically becomes an issue at election time, and Sabah is set to hold its 17th state polls by November at the latest.
