TOR SHOULD INCLUDE REASON FOR PROJECT IC: PKR

TOR should include reason for Project IC: PKR

Kota Kinabalu April 15, 2012: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sabah's Bureau on Security, Immigration and Electoral Reform said the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) should include establishing the reason for the Project IC.

"Establish the process by which this Project IC happened, including all parties and government agencies involved, and examine who was/were responsible for it," said its chief, Dr Chong Eng Leong.

He said the TOR must include investigating the number of foreigners given ICs dubiously since the start of this Project IC, reviewing the citizenship status of these Project IC holders as well as finding out the number and names of these Project IC holders registered in the Sabah electoral roll with the view of expunging them from the roll before the coming General Election.

Dr Chong said the RCI TOR should also include looking into the extraordinary increase in Sabah's population since 1970, analyse how and why this extraordinary increase was in fact due to an unrealistic/unnatural increase in the Sabah's "Bumiputera" population.

"It must scrutinise the overall effect of the huge influx of these foreigners on socio-economic, security and sovereignty of Sabah, and recommend long-term realistic approaches to manage this, apart from suggesting legal steps including criminal action, against those involved," he said.

Lastly, he said the Chairperson of this RCI should be a Sabahan of high integrity, in line with the concept of Borneonisation as enshrined in the 20 Points pledge when Sabah took part in the formation of Malaysia in 1963 "PBS has been asking for this RCI since 1996. All the 16 Election Petitions 1999 filed by PBS had, among others, pleaded that there were phantom voters in their constituencies," he said.

Dr Chong said PBS President Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan had recently stated that foreigners could not be "Bumiputera".

"Certainly he would agree with our suggestions," he said.

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Chinese should be considered as natives, says Sano

Kota Kinabalu April 15, 2012: The Chinese should be considered as natives or indigenous people of Sabah because history recorded their presence in Borneo as early as 835AD.

Sabah Native Cultural and Welfare Organisation (Sano) President, Samson Quintin, said the involvement of the Chinese community in shaping the history of Borneo was also evident through one Ong Sum Ping in 1375 who landed in Kinabatangan.

Ong and his army succeeded in stopping the Suluks' advancement into the territory and in later years he married the daughter of the Sultan of Brunei.

"Based on this fact, I am of the opinion that the Chinese are also qualified to be considered natives of Sabah," he said in a statement here Saturday.

"There is a difference between the term Anak Negeri (indigenous) and Bumiputera," he said.

"For example, in the peninsula, the Malays do not consider themselves as Anak Negeri because the Sakai tribe and others there are the indigenous people.

"Similarly in Sabah, the term native is for native and Bumiputera is for Bumiputera," he said.

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The Golden Legacy: Ong Sum Ping