Three-decade dream of Sabahans for a Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrants in the state will be realized on Wednesday if 24 BN Sabah MPs support motion

The three-decade dream of Sabahans for a Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrants in the state will be realized on Wednesday if the 24 Barisan Nasional MPs join the 82 Pakatan Rakyat MPs to support the amendment to the Motion of Thanks for the establishment of such a Royal Commission.

For the past thirty years, calls for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the illegal immigrant problem had been made in Parliament, the Sabah State Assembly as well as in the public domain but they had been totally ignored.

Now, for the first time in three decades, it is possible for such a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the long-standing and intractable problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah, which had reduced Sabahans into a minority to foreigners, to be established provided the 24 Barisan Nasional MPs walk the talk about their concerns about this issue and support my amendment to the Motion of Thanks for the Royal Address to set up such a Royal Commission.

The support of the 24 BN MPs is all that is needed to secure the necessary majority in Parliament to direct the Cabinet to set up such a Royal Commission of Inquiry as there will be 82 Pakatan Rakyat MPs in support of the proposal.

Although the Parliament has a total of 222 MPs, I do not expect more than 200 MPs to be in Parliament during the voting, which means that with the support of 82 Pakatan Rakyat MPs together with the 24 BN Sabah MPs, there will be a majority of at least 106 votes to carry the amendment motion.

Whether a Royal Commission of Inquiry on the long-standing and intractable problem of Sabah illegal immigrants, which had turned the �land below the wind� from a paradise on earth before the sixties into quite a nightmarish land, is now completely in the hands of Sabahans, in particular the BN Sabah MPs.

* Lim Kit Siang,  DAP Parliamentary leader  & MP for Ipoh Timor