MP slams Hamzah for ‘copying’ answer on Sabah’s migrants issue

Sandakan MP Vivian Wong Shir Yee has criticised Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin for giving the Dewan Rakyat the same answer he gave last year on Sabah’s long-standing undocumented migrants issue.

Wong said Hamzah’s “photocopy” answer was that the ministry has set up a Sabah Illegal Immigrant Management Committee and technical committee to resolve the issue.

“During last year’s Parliament sitting, I called our immigrant issue the ‘mother of all our problems’ in Sabah, and demanded the government immediately establish a strategy and concrete plan based on a previous Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report dealing with this critical issue.

“The same minister replied that the government has set up a Jawatankuasa Pengurusan Warga Asing Sabah and technical committee to resolve this issue that has long been considered the state’s ‘Achilles heel’. 

“Last Tuesday in Parliament, the same minister, when pressed on what has the government has done on tackling the issue in Sabah, simply reiterated his response from a year ago without (revealing) any real progress.

“It is still the same old thing of forming a special committee, more meetings, and more engagements,” Wong said in a statement yesterday. 

The DAP lawmaker said Hamzah even had the audacity to say that the issue required political will from all sides when clearly, it is the government that lacks commitment to resolve the issue.

“Do not try to blame the community for any so-called opposition to the government’s plan on resolving this issue.

“What is the point of spending taxpayers’ money to build more detention centres to house illegal immigrants? This is a sign of failure on the part of the government to manage and control our immigrant problems.” 

Wong urged the government to set up a system to identify and manage the whereabouts of the state’s migrant population.

“The financial burden we face vaccinating the large migrant population in the state currently and our inability to trace and locate them is already a serious warning to the authorities.  

“Enough is enough. Walk the talk or step down. We need immediate action from the government.” – The Vibes,