Ongkili should not get the wrong end of the stick –he should realise that resolving the 50-year nightmare of Sabah illegal immigrants with voting rights is the first and most important step to fulfil MA63 conditions for Sabah

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah and Sarawak Affairs) Maximus Ongkili should not get the wrong end of the stick – he should realise that resolving the 50-year nightmare of Sabah illegal immigrants with voting rights is the first and most important step to fulfil the MA63 conditions for Sabah.

Ongkili has been a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Sabah and Sarawak affairs for more than two years.

What has he done to resolve the 50-year nightmare of Sabah illegal immigrants with voting rights?

Last month, Ongkili led a team of legal experts, researchers and officials from the federal and Sabah government to London to search for and study any references related to the state’s rights under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

Why was Ongkili in London when he is unable to resolve the single most outstanding MA63 problem for Sabah – the nightmare of the Sabah illegal immigrants with voting rights?

All Ongkili needs to do is to refer to the Twenty-Points Memorandum on Immigration submitted to the Inter-Government Committee in 1962 and which states: “Point 6: Immigration

“Control over immigration into any part of Malaysia from outside should rest with the Central Government but entry into North Borneo should also require the approval of the State Government. The Federal Government should not be able to veto the entry of persons into North Borneo for State Government purposes except on strictly security grounds. North Borneo should have unfettered control over the movements of persons other than those in Federal Government employ from other parts of Malaysia into North Borneo.”

Sabah’s population has increased six times from 653,000 in 1970 to 3.91 million in 2020 – all because of an influx of illegal immigrants.

This is a problem which Ongkili should resolve since his predecessor as PBS President, Joseph Pairin Kitingan, had failed in this task after PBS’ returing to Barisan Nasional in 2002 and becoming Sabah Deputy Chief Minister from 2004-2018 and Chairman of the Working Committee of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Illegal Immigrants in Sabah from 2014-2018.

I have written three days ago to Ongkili for help to have access to the 5,000 missing pages in the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Illegal immigrants in Sabah given voting rights and to Joseph Pairin for information as to what were his proposals as Chairman of the Working Committee of the RCI Report which had been accepted and implemented and his proposals which had been rejected, and waiting for replies.