Take immigrants from Sabah, Jeffrey tells KL

KOTA KINABALU: The federal government should not even consider taking in more Rohingya refugees but should instead decide to take as many as possible the “illegal refugees” in Sabah, said Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR) president Datuk Dr Jeffrey G Kitingan.

He made the remarks in response to the announcement by Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed on Saturday that Malaysia is willing to accept more Rohingya refugees into the country following the increasingly tense situation in Myanmar.

Jeffrey said Nur Jazlan himself had shown deep concern when he expressed fears that some Rohingya militants could take advantage of Malaysia's goodwill after entering the country.

“Nur Jazlan had said that 'the huge number can be worrying to us as there is the possibility that some may be sympathisers of the militants who are active in their country',” he noted.

“If there is strong suspicion and worry about national security, why invite danger by accepting Rohingyas who may very well be a Trojan Horse?” Jeffrey said.

“By now Malaysia should have been adequately warned and had learned a hard lesson from the way these refugees demonstrated in the national capital on August 30. They were so violent that more than a hundred protestors were arrested.”

“It is now general knowledge that the Rohingyas have a very different culture which is characterised by brashness, impudence and aggressiveness which are the reasons they don't get along with their Buddhist fellow countrymen in Myanmar,” Jeffrey claimed.

“They simply will not get along with the peace-loving Malaysians. There are now a number of reports which have gone viral in the social media about Peninsula Malaysians' bad experience with them,” he said.

Jeffrey said that with a lot more refugees being accepted into Malaysia, the country would suffer serious economic and socio-political ramifications, not unlike the ones now happening in Europe with refugees from the Middle East.

“If Peninsula Malaysia is really hungry for refugees in addition to the present flood of Bangladeshis there, they should take as many as possible from the hundreds of thousands of the illegal, and even legal, immigrants from Sabah.

“At least our immigrants here are more predictable, although they have caused serious socio-economic problems to us,” he said.

Jeffrey added the danger with having more Rohinyas is that eventually many of them will spill over to Sabah.

“And to us that's a frightful addition to our half-century problems with immigrants from our neighbours.”

Jeffrey said Malaysians should also start asking what is the agenda of the government in wanting more refugees at a time when Malaysia is burdened with so many economic problems.