Pointless, Dr M says of Sabah RCI

The unchecked influx of illegal immigrants in Sabah has been a longstanding problem in the BN-ruled state, and frequently blamed for the rise in social, economic and security problems suffered by the locals.

Yesterday a Sabah-based Barisan Nasional (BN) party condemned Dr Mahathir for his “insensitive” defense of Sabah’s increasing migrant population, an emotive issue that will likely be central to the pact’s campaign for the state in the coming polls.

According to replies provided in Parliament last year, Sabah’s populace numbered 651,304 in 1970 and grew to 929,299 a decade later. But in the two decades following 1980, the state’s population rose significantly by a staggering 1.5 million people, reaching 2,468,246 by 2000.

Media reports said that as of 2010, this number has grown further to 3.12 million, with foreigners making up a sizeable 27 per cent or 889,799 of the population.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, however, said today that he disagreed with Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s decision to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into Sabah’s illegal immigrant problem, pointing out that such a panel would bring no solutions and instead complicate matters.

“The RCI will not deliver any result that will solve the problems. When there is an RCI it will bring about other matters,” the former prime minister told reporters today.

“I have been accused of apparently bringing them (illegal immigrants) in ... We don’t have to do that because they came on their own.

“Previously they have been coming and going. They are not alien to Sabah; they have been going back and forth between Sabah and the Philippines. Maybe they feel Sabah is safer and that is why they stay there,” said Dr Mahathir today.

He highlighted that, while he was PM, he had directed the authorities to repatriate the foreigners but it was a pointless exercise because they kept returning.