KOTA KINABALU, April 15 — An independent committee formed among Sabah’s opposition parties issued today a fresh demand to debate the Royal Commission of Inquiry’s (RCI) report on the state’s illegal immigrants in Parliament as well as the state legislative assembly.

The group calling themselves the “independent monitoring and action committee on the RCI report”, said in one of six recommendations to Sabah’s technical working committee on migrant management that the state assembly should convene a special sitting to peruse the report, which was made public last year.

The committee, which includes as members Sabah Opposition Leader Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, former chief minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee and former deputy chief minister Datuk Wilfred Bumburing, said its objective is to assist the authorities in solving the problems identified in the RCI report.

“The solutions lie not with the federal and Sabah governments, which cannot be relied upon, given that stakeholders in both governments have a vested interest not to resolve the problems.

“These problems are in no small way caused by the ruling Umno-led BN government and their non-action.

“As such, the independent committee will be able to present issues and proposals without restrictions,” the committee said in a letter that was presented during a courtesy call to deputy chief minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who also heads the state’s committee on migrant management.

Apart from calling for a debate, the committee also urged the state to clean up the electoral roll to remove unqualified voters, scrutinise all dubious MyKads, issue a Sabah IC to all genuine citizens, probe those implicated in the RCI and compel Putrajaya to make public all materials from the royal panel’s proceedings.

The letter, which was signed by 12 individuals, also stated that the committee is willing to extend the cooperation of its members to help the state find final and long-lasting solutions.

Also part of the committee are former minister Datuk Noor Mansoor, Datuk Kalakau Untol, Amde Sidik, Tony Minggir, Edward Dagul, Melanie Chia, Jalumin Bayogoh, Edward Linggu and Kanul Gindol.

Pairin said that they held a discussion during the presentation of the recommendations from the group and will be compiling more pointers to present to the main committee headed by the Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman and Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Pairin, who is Parti Bersatu Sabah president, was verbally appointed chairman of the committee by the prime minister late last year and was put in charge of analysing the RCI report and proposing an action plan to solve the long-standing issue.

Last October, Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan announced that the RCI report would be tabled in Parliament, some six months after it was handed over to the king and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

On November 15, Najib said after taking into consideration the seriousness of Sabah’s illegal immigrants issue, his Cabinet had agreed to making the RCI report public.

An attempt two weeks later by opposition MPs to force a debate on the report in Parliament via an emergency motion was killed, however.

The highly anticipated 368-page report was never tabled and was only made public on December 3 in a closed-door event for media and heads of relevant government departments.