Stop abusing immigration power — Kit Siang

KUCHING: Democratic Action Party (DAP) parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang has called on chief ministers of Sarawak and Sabah to stop their abuse of immigration power by illegally and undemocratically barring Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders from entering both states.

The Gelang Patah MP said they must stop such abuse if they were serious in wanting the federal government to fully respect the letter and spirit of Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

“Under the MA63 which conferred immigration autonomy powers to Sarawak and Sabah, it was clearly stipulated that no Malaysian from Peninsular Malaysia should be barred from entry into Sarawak and Sabah in pursuit of ‘legitimate political activities’.

“In barring PH leaders from entry into Sarawak and Sabah although in pursuit of ‘legitimate political activities’, the Sarawak and Sabah chief ministers would be abusing their powers under MA63, which would undermine their legitimate demands for the full recognition and restoration of the rights of Sarawak and Sabah under the MA63,” he said in a statement issued upon his arrival at Kuching International Airport here yesterday.

Lim also touched on the remarks made by former Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Rahim Noor who was in Kota Kinabalu for a forum ‘Malaysia in the Future’ on Tuesday.

“Rahim Noor warned Umno its concessions to PAS, particularly over the controversial Islamic penal code hudud, could lose its Sabah and Sarawak support.

“He said that the federal government would not only lose the goodwill and support of the East Malaysian states, the latter may even agitate to leave the federation if the government submits to PAS’ demands to implement hudud just to ensure that Umno remains in power,” he said.

He added that the former Inspector-General of Police stressed that the Federation of Malaysia was never meant to be an Islamic country because if it was, Sabah and Sarawak would never have agreed to it.

It was also mentioned that when the idea of Malaysia was mooted, religion was the main issue addressed by the Cobbold Commission, he pointed out.

“The people in the Bornean states, all of them, regardless of race and religion, did not want an official religion for the new federation.

“The demand was reasonable. After all, there are many Muslimmajority countries in the world that do not have Islam as their official religion, for example Egypt and Indonesia, a country with the highest number of Muslims in the world,” asserted Lim.

He thus called upon both the Sarawak and Sabah chief ministers to publicly endorse the position of the former InspectorGeneral of Police.

He said it concerned one of the fundamental nation-building principles of the country as well as one of the fundamental terms and conditions for Sarawak and Sabah’s agreement to form Malaysia in 1963.

“Are both the Sarawak and Sabah chief ministers prepared to do this?” asked Lim.