Illegal immigrants in Sabah: A slow boat to nowhere
Talk, of course, is cheap. And in Joseph Pairin Kitingan’s words, “easy”. But Sabahans don’t need their deputy chief minister to tell them so. What they want to know from him is what has he been doing for the past one year since he chaired a “technical committee” to look into the recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into illegal immigrants in their state.
Understandbly Mr Kitingan was upset when his federal minister Joseph Kurup criticised him for his “inaction” to which he retorted that he wasn’t sleeping on his job. Mr Kitingan took offence to Mr Kurup’s attack because he thought that comrades (both are in the nationally ruling Barisan Nasional coalition) should support each other. Mr Kurup was his junior in his Parti Bersatu Sabah which ruled the resource-rich north Borneo island state from 1985 to 1994. But he now leads a splinter group in the tiny Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah that was formed in the aftermath of defections from the PBS which felled Mr Kitingan’s government.
Sabah Insights 