Muhyiddin: BN politicising Sabah Temporary Pass now for political mileage

KOTA KINABALU, Jan 11 — Refuting opposition attacks that the Sabah temporary pass (PSS) is a dangerous path leading to citizenship for foreigners, Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today that the Barisan Nasional (BN) party would have implemented the same measures, had they won the last 14th general election (GE14).

Explaining that the PSS was a necessary immigration procedure, Muhyiddin said that BN was just protesting the move simply because of their role in the opposition.

He added that the BN government then, in fact mooted the plan for a version of it back in 2015 though they did not implement it yet.

“Correct that they did not arrive at a decision, and they did not implement it then. But their intention was there at the time. Only thing is they lost.

“So they had thought about it and now we are thinking about it. But now they don’t agree with it. Just because they are the opposition they object it, they don’t agree with it. This is political trickery. But to us, it is about the security and wellbeing of Sabahans,” said Muhyiddin.

The Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia chairman said that when the Pakatan Harapan government took over in May 2018, they said it was a fair and reasonable proposal to standardise the three documents that were being issued to foreigners in Sabah.

He said they took the proposal, improved and expanded on it before agreeing in principle to implement it in September 2019, after a meeting with the Sabah government.

Muhyiddin said that among other improvements were looking into ways that the PSS would be provided to every foreigner, as opposed to just the head of the household, as stipulated under the IMM13 document.

“This is purely immigration legislation. It is needed to monitor the foreigners here — provide them with documents that will allow them to find work, have identification status to seek medical services and send their children to school.

“It is immigration laws, is not about citizenship. Do not politicise this,” he said.

PSS, a contentious issue from the beginning, is being used as the main political rhetoric by the opposition now in the Kimanis by-election and has invariably put Parti Warisan Sabah on the defence.

When asked about concerns that children of PSS holders would eventually get citizenship, Muhyiddin said it was impossible to stop people from getting married and having children, and they would have to be dealt with according to immigration and national registration laws.

“Can we stop them? They need documents to go to school. Should they be stateless forever? For sure the 136,055 people who have these documents now are now 140,000 or 150,000 now, we don’t know. But this is what we are facing now.

“I don’t want to say what the long-term solution is, but this PSS is just the start, it won’t solve that, it is more complicated than that,” he said.

The PSS is due for implementation on June 1, 2020, and will involve holders of the IMM13 document, Kad Burung-Burung and Census Card totalling 136,055 which has been issued since the 1970s. Holders would turn in their existing documents in exchange for the PSS, which would cost RM120 for three years’ validity and renewable at 10 immigration branches across the state and Labuan.

The pass would only allow movement in Sabah, and can be cancelled if the holder obtains a passport from their country of origin or are convicted of criminal activities.

The move was highly criticised by the opposition, with some claiming that it would allow for more foreigners to obtain citizenship.

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Azis Jamman later hit back at detractors, revealing that the BN administration had mooted and proposed the idea in a meeting jointly chaired by then Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and then Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman in July 2015 and then later again in a Technical Foreigners Committee meeting chaired by then Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan on February 15, 2016.

Zahid later denied this.