Hoping RCI can resolve definition of native.

Hoping RCI can resolve definition of native 

By: Tan Sri Herman Luping 

THE setting up of the Royal Commision of Inquiry (RCI) on the illegal immigrants debate starts.

Congratulations to the Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman of UMNO, Sabah, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok of UPKO, and Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan of PBS and the many other leaders from both sides of the political divide for getting the "nod" from the Federal Cabinet for the setting up of the RCI to enquire in particular the reasons for the sudden increase of Sabah's population and the sudden increase of MyKad Malaysian card holders.

It is generally believed that the sudden increase of the number of MyKad holders is due to the granting of identity cards by the Registration department to illegal immigrants. The RCI is set up to look into this general perception.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib, is due to make the announcement about the setting up of the RCI and in particular the terms and conditions for the RCI to abide and follow. The private secretary to Datuk VK Liew of LDP, Albert Kok, leaked the announcement last Thursday, saying the Ministry of Law and Parliament Affairs of which Liew is the Deputy Minister, has been entrusted to look into the terms of reference and other related matters with the Attorney General's Chambers. Kok said that this positive development was made by the Federal Cabinet. Dompok, who is a Federal Minister and the Upko BN coalition partner confirmed that the issue of RCI was discussed by the Federal Cabinet.

"It has been discussed and the Prime Minister will make an announcement soon", he said.

During Upko's delegates congress last year, Bernard had stressed that it will take nothing less than a RCI to resolve the issue that is plaguing Sabah people.

He added that the high increase in Sabah population and the high profile case of a purportedly Malaysian citizen being "crowned" the Sultan of Sulu warrants the need for a RCI so that the Government could get to the bottom of the issue'. He said the illegal immigrants problem has caused so much dissatisfaction in Sabah and the suspicion emanating from the issue has cast serious doubt on the integrity of the system.

Sabah BN-Umno, the pillar of the BN coalition in the country has also called for the setting up of the RCI to resolve the long standing issue.

Now that the Federal Government has agreed on the setting up of the RCI, are we likely to see the end or find the solution to the long standing problem of illegal immigrants in our midst? In my opinion, members of the RCI would be faced with many issues concerning the illegal immigrants.

To begin with, who are the illegal immigrants? And why were they issued with the MyKad allowing them to become Malaysian citizens and thus able to vote at the general election or any election in Sabah?

There is an article in the internet for instance purportedly containing a leaked statement by the former chairman of the election commission (EC) to an officer of the American Embassy in Kuala Lumpur that he issued some 600,000 identity cards to the so-called illegal immigrants at the request of a former Prime Minister. I saw a denial of this statement in the press later, but it might still need to be properly investigated.

It is also possible that one of the problems that the RCI needs to resolve is the question of the interpretation of native in Sabah. The Interpretation (Definition of Native) Ordinance (Sabah Cap 64) as it stands presently differ from the interpretation native in the Malaysian constitution.

Under section 2 (d) of the above quoted Interpretation of Native Ordinance, for example, a native is "any person who is ordinarily resident in Sabah, is a member of a people indigenous to the Republic of Indonesia of the Sulu group of islands in the Philippines Archipelago - has lived as and been a member of the native community for a continuous period of five years immediately preceding the date of his claim to be a native, has been borne a good character - and whose stay in Sabah is not limited under any of the provisions of the Immigration Act,1959/63."

As far as the people of Sabah can remember - indeed, from time immemorial, the people referred to in the Definition of Native section 2(d) had occupied the shores of Sabah and lived in the coastal areas of the east coast. There was a free flow of people coming from say the Sulu Islands, Mindanau etc for the proximity of these places made it possible for the people to come over to Sabah.

And by the early 1800, the eastern part of Sabah - from Tawau-Semporna to Lahad Datu to Sandakan came under the rule of the Sulu Sultan by agreement with the Sultan of Brunei, then ruler of all of North Borneo.

The subjects of the Sulu Sultan freely went to Sabah and stayed in settlements in the east coast by right.

Then by 1881, a Company Government was established by a royal charter obtained from Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

The Company government, in order to open up the land for agriculture, plantations and for commerce, invited more people to immigrate into Sabah. Indentured laborers from China, for instance, were also encouraged to come to Sabah, and there was more of the people from the Philippine Archipelago who came freely into the country.

After the Second World War, the Company government was taken over by the Colonial administration and Sabah became a Crown Colony in 1946.

The Interpretation (Definition of Native) Ordinance was established in 1954 by the Colonial administration.

As a result many more came to Sabah and many, Muslims as well as Christians from the Philippines became natives of Sabah.

By the late 1970s more and more people from the Indonesian and Philippines islands came, almost en mass, to Sabah.

But hitherto, the population of Sabah was still only a mere million people with the Kadazandusun as the most numerous or has the majority as a single community.

The demarcation of the constituencies in the 1976 election, for instance was 48, with 20 seats predominantly with Muslim majority, 20 seats with predominantly Kadazandusun Murut majority and 8 seats with predominantly Chinese. Berjaya defeated the Usno-Alliance in the April election of 1976, with 28 seats won by the new Berjaya party (Kadazandusun Murut 20 and Chinese 8) and Usno winning in all the 20 Muslim seats.

This election scenario was repeated in the 1985 election, with the new PBS party winning in 26 seats of the 48 seats, with the Kadazandusun Murut and Chinese voting for the new PBS party.

The USNO party won in 16 of the 20 predominantly Muslim seats, leaving the incumbent governing party, Berjaya, winning in only 6 seats.

The surprise win by the new Party, PBS is considered the reason for those "in authority" to find to vary the voting patterns in Sabah. Many amongst the various politicians and political parties feel that the delineation or demarcation of the constituencies by the Election Commission was heavily weighted in favour of one community. There is also the suspicion amongst the opposition leaders that the sudden increase in the number of dubious holders of MyKad identity cards was because of the same exercise and objective - to increase the voting strength of one community.

The hope, therefore, is for the RCI to allay the fears of Sabahans that illegal immigrants were given Malaysian identity cards.

And more, the RCI would also be making a finding regarding the position of those who falls under the definition of natives of Sabah under Section 2(d) of the Sabah Ordinance - on definition of native.