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Saturday, April 18, 2015

How to deal with Sabah IC and citizenship woes

Citizenship, Sabah and Project IC.
FMT LETTERS
projek ic sabah
By Gerrard Montikiu
With regard to the Sukau ADUN Saddi Abdul Rahman’s motion of thanks during the current Sabah state Assembly sitting in addressing the Sabah villagers which were denied citizenship status, I would like to praise him for bringing up this longstanding issue. At the same time I have a few questions for him.
Before that, let me state that I am not with, nor am I against the Government, State or Federal, with regard to citizenship.
Everyone knows that the project IC in Sabah or better known as “Project Mahathir” “is” more than just a conspiracy theory. The reason I say “is” and not “was”, is because I and many others out there are not convinced that this covert operation has ended. Before it was the illegal Filipinos, now the limelight points towards the Pakistanis.
My first question to Saddi would be: what are the efforts carried out by you and the Kinabatangan MP (Bung Moktar Radin) besides raising the issue in the State Assembly and Parliament? As the Wakil Rakyat for your area, you can always think of a temporary plan in helping the rakyat before the “better way forward” surfaces. You cited that most remote villages in Sukau don’t have government clinics, and that women need to turn to local midwives when giving birth, this will come to obtaining late birth registration certificates through the Magistrate Courts and so on.
During the election, government machinery is mobilised statewide to campaign for the BN candidates. Where is the machinery now? Suddenly we are depleted of resources? Four-wheelers enter even the remotest of the remote villages to spread the “good name” of the BN. Yet when the people need assistance they are given all types of excuses.
You are the ADUN, find a way to bring the villagers to the registration departments. Don’t wait for Peruntukan for the sake of getting projects. Just raising the matter in the State Assembly won’t help.
The next question would be regarding flexibility on the part of the Sabah Birth and Death Registration ordinance of 1951, which you said was too strict, and that the National Registration Department should be empowered to issue late registration birth certificates.
Are you 100% sure that all the villagers who were denied citizenship are genuine Sabahans? Was a thorough investigation, provided with justification, testimonials, witnesses, and screening done on the background of the villagers? If there was, then I’m sure that there is hope for them, if not, I too would be suspicious of entertaining / processing their applications.
I am not accusing the villagers in Sukau of being non-Sabahans seeking citizenship but we need to tread carefully. This perennial problem also exists in urban areas like Penampang and Upko has pledged their assistance to those affected.
The last question is the proposal to empower District Officers to endorse late birth registrations. Is this really a good idea? In terms of convenience for the rakyat of course yes, but what happens to the security of Registration and Immigration? The government removed this power for a reason. I am not belittling the integrity of the DOs and ADOs but we need to be cautious with regard to Registration and Immigration.
My advice to you is to mobilise your people with whatever government resources that you can arrange in your capacity as ADUN until there are funds to build clinics or hospitals in the areas concerned. That is if you are a leader for the people. Governments systems are created and put in place to not only reduce, but also to eradicate false IC syndicates which have badly damaged the demography of Sabah.
Gerrard Montikiu is a member of Pemuda Parti Kebangsaan Sabah and an FMT reader

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