KOTA KINABALU – Opposition leaders from Pakatan Harapan in Sabah raised their doubts in the vote for two resolutions to resolve the state’s migrant problem during a one-day town hall session held yesterday.
According to Sabah PH chairman Datuk Christina Liew, the coalition has expressed its disagreement with the second resolution to issue cards to the migrants, citing discrepancies and unresolved concerns.
She also expressed the coalition’s agreement with the first proposed solution for the state to start a database on migrants in the state.
“The first resolution we agreed to, but the second resolution, we did not agree to that.
“We did not vote on the second resolution on issuing identification cards.
“They did not provide many details to us on how they are going to issue the identity cards to them.
“That’s why we did not vote for it,” Liew told reporters here today.
Town hall respondents voted in favour of both resolutions, with the solution to establish a database on the migrants garnering a 99% vote from 144 participants, while the issuance of identification cards to migrants garnered 89% votes from 89 respondents.
During a press conference following yesterday’s town hall, Special Committee on Undocumented Migrant and Foreign Nationals chairman Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan said the votes can be translated as the state now has the mandate to proceed with the two solutions.
However, he noted the move only applies to inland migrants, which refers to those holding Kad Burung-Burung, IMM13, and the Census Certificate, currently numbering to around 136,055 individuals.
The town hall was attended by politicians from both opposition and ruling camps, non-governmental organisations, and local association groups.
Meanwhile, Upko secretary-general Nelson Anggang said the proposed card issuance is no different to the similarly proposed Temporary Sabah Card proposed during the PH administration.
“We were present yesterday, but to be honest, from what we were hearing from them, there was nothing different from what was proposed by the federal agencies during the Warisan-PH-Upko state government.
“It is actually the same proposal, but they are using a different name, they call it ‘pen-data-an’ (‘datafying’) migrants,” he said.
Before the PSS proposal was scrapped in January 2020, Anggang said the leaders in the current Sabah government, who were the opposition then, opposed and politicised the PSS, adding that the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah leaders are now telling PH leaders not to do what they have done before.
Meanwhile DAP’s Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Foong Hin meanwhile called the GRS-BN leaders hypocrites, saying they should stop acting like such.
“Now that Sabah PH has filed a suit on the 40% revenue entitlement, I hope they won’t be hypocrites on this matter and instead support us.
“They don’t need to accuse PH of keeping migrants in this case. We hope they can provide their support on claiming the 40%,” he said.
This morning, PH leaders in Sabah filed an originating summons on the 40% revenue entitlement for Sabah, citing they are seeking a court declaration on the non-implementation of Article 112C and Article 112D of the federal constitution.
Towards this end, Chan said the summons was done by Sabah PH on its own accord without seeking approval or consent from the national PH body.
He said Sabah PH is unlike the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah-Barisan Nasional alliance which now relies on their peninsula leaders to make decisions. – The Vibes, June 3, 2022
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