Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Thursday June 19, 2008

Sabah feels the strain

ALONG THE WATCHTOWER
By M. VEERA PANDIYAN


Pressure is mounting in the Land Below the Wind over the long-standing issue of illegal immigrants. The citizens there are fed up with constant lip service from the Federal Government promising to resolve the social problem.

FLIGHTS from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur tend to start with a whiff of anchovies, dried prawns and salted fish wafting through the cabin. Thankfully, the odours are diffused as the plane’s air-con vents are opened before take off.

Given the taste and cheaper price, the ikan bilis, udang kering, and ikan kering are must-buy items to bring back from Sabah. Besides, the sellers at the Filipino market are impressive packers. They cut, fold and tie-up used cartons to resemble handy cases.

The busy market where T-shirts, trinkets and handicraft are also sold was among the last stops for my colleagues from the National Press Club who were on a goodwill tour to Sabah last weekend.

The trip, made memorable by the participation of fellow journalists from Sarawak, included a climb to Mt Kinabalu, white-water rafting and an island hop, besides meetings and dinners with fellow media folk, politicians and corporate leaders.

As we were leaving with our haul, a party of sorts was in full swing next to the famous market. A boisterous crowd gathered under a gaudy yellow tent decorated with balloons and posters. Teens strutted their moves to the beat of a Filipino hip-hop hit blasting from the speakers.

The makeshift show, conducted mostly in Tagalog and a smattering of Bahasa Malaysia by a DJ, was to promote the services of a money transfer company. Such spectacles are apparently common in KK where Filipinos are prominent.

The niche market is big enough for business to boom. And that’s just counting the “legals” with documents.

As for the illegal immigrants, it has been estimated that there are between 1.7 million and two million both from the Philippines and Indonesia. About half of them reputedly hold Malaysian identity cards, enjoying all rights of citizenship, including voting.

Then there are also the glue-sniffing street kids, abandoned offspring of illegal immigrants, groups classified as refugees, and the hordes that move freely from the permeable Sabah coastline to islands in Philippines and Indonesia.

No one knows the actual number of these people although the problem has been highlighted for decades. As such, it was no surprise that the recent announcement to set up a Cabinet committee on illegal immigrants was greeted with a big yawn.

The decision has only reinforced Sabahans’ views that the Federal Government is not serious about resolving the issue.

Besides DAP and PKR, Sabah Umno’s partners in the state Barisan Nasional, too, have openly dismissed the Cabinet committee, pointing out that similar panels were set up 2000 and 2006 with no tangible results. They feel that only a Royal Commission of Inquiry can resolve the problem.

Datuk Yong Teck Lee, the moustachioed and side-burned SAPP president, whose party declared that it had lost confidence in the leadership of the Prime Minister yesterday, has repeatedly questioned the Government’s reluctance in addressing the matter squarely.

He said tackling the issue of illegal immigrants should be the basic duty of any government as it is a matter of national sovereignty.

The age-old anxiety over the aliens has heightened in the wake of the Moro National Liberation Front’s former leader Nur Misuari’s touted threat to contest the ownership claim of Sabah at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Yong has demanded that the National Security Council (NSC) closely monitor developments in the southern Philippines, impose tighter immigration controls and even suspend ferry services between Zamboanga in Philippines and Sandakan.

But some leaders are of the opinion that closing the borders to people with long historical ties might result in bigger and costlier problems. Disruption of traditional business such as the dried seafood trade and other sources of income, they say, could lead to social unrest.

The risk of the insurgency in the poverty-stricken areas of southern Philippines shifting closer to home is certainly real.

Like Yong, Upko’s deputy president Datuk Wilfred Bumburing has been jittery over the rising number of aliens and Nur Misuari’s challenge.

The Tuaran MP has already warned Parliament that Malaysia could end up losing a much bigger piece of land than Batu Puteh if it did not do something about the problem.

Among the questions being bandied about now are: What if the matter goes to the ICJ and a referendum like the Cobbold Commission under which Sabah joined Malaysia is called? Which side will the immigrants with ICs vote for?

The breaking point has come for Sabahans. Besides the loss of jobs and opportunities, locals fear that the number of aliens had risen to levels that threaten to dilute their political strength and influence.

Their apprehension is understandable. For a state blessed with abundant natural resources, including vast areas of forests and oil and gas deposits, the poverty level is indeed appalling.

Anthea Mulakala, Asia Foundation’s representative in Malaysia reported recently that 24% of households in the Land Below the Wind live below the national poverty line.

Child poverty rate is 42% and more than one fifth of the population aged six and above has never been to school.

As she put it, Malaysia “enjoys the unflattering distinction of having the highest Gini coefficient in Southeast Asia, attributable to the high incidence of poverty in Eastern Malaysia. Sabah’s GDP per capita is less than 50% of the national average.”

(The Gini coefficient, developed by Italian statistician Corrado Gini, is used to show the degree of income inequality between different groups of households in the population. It is also used to show how inequality of incomes has been changing over a period of time.)

Mulakala also pointed out that most of Sabah and also Sarawak’s poor come from the non-Malay bumiputra population (61% of Sabah and more than 50% of Sarawak), highlighting the reality that the NEP has not been successful in alleviating these indigenous people from poverty.

But the natives are not taking it lying down anymore like they used to, especially after the latest round of fuel hikes. At the Pesta Kaamatan (Harvest Festival) gatherings, their rumblings were clearly heard amid the usual guzzling of lihing (rice wine).

The pressure is certainly piling up on the politicians, particularly non-Umno leaders of BN, most of whom are not as vocal as Yong. At the Pesta Kaamatan at Ulu Kionsom in Inanam, the SAPP chief said pressing for urgent solutions to Sabah’s problems should not be misconstrued as threats.

“We just want to make it clear to them. No point in puji puji (praising), sokong penuh (fully supporting), kissing the hand, angkat kaki (carrying the legs) anymore. These are not what the people want to convey to the national leadership through the component parties and MPs,” he said.

M. Veera Pandiyan, Deputy Editor, New Media feels that politicians in the peninsula can learn a lot about religious and ethnic harmony from fellow Malaysians in Sabah and Sarawak.

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