ONLY 1.6MIL IN SABAH ARE REAL M'SIANS

Kota Kinabalu: Dr Chong Eng Leong disputed the figures given by Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar that of the 3.1 million people in Sabah there were only 800,000 foreigners while the remainder 2.3 million are Malaysians.

"The Federal has all the time maintained the figures but I have maintained my figures and it has even been proven in court," he said, Friday.

"Together with their dependents their numbers this year could easily reach 700,000. So we only have 1.6 million genuine Malaysians in Sabah,"

Based on the figures from the Statistics Department, the 30-year population increase for the Kadazandusun Murut (KDM) was 162 per cent (167,993 in 1960 to 643,100 in 2007).

But, he said for the Malays, the population increase from 1970 to 2007 was about 10 times that of the KDMs, while the Bajau and Irranun were only two-fold.