THE power to grant citizenship should be decentralised and handed to Sabah to weed out dubious citizens, said Chief Minister Shafie Apdal, in view of calls to “recall and reissue” identity cards in the state.

He said only Sabahans would be able to tell the difference between a Sabahan and a  migrant.

“We (Parti Warisan Sabah) have voiced this matter much earlier via my deputy (Darell Leiking), including United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) in our struggles.

“I think the federal government should decentralise citizenship powers and give it to Sabah, because we know who are Sabahans. We can also check the authenticity of claims (of being Sabahans) with the village chiefs,” he told reporters at the Upko Tri-annual conference in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Earlier, Upko acting president Wilfred Madius reiterated the party call to recall and reissue the ICs to single out the dubious citizens in the state.

The Sabah Progressive Party had also made a similar call.

The illegal immigrant issue is a long-standing problem in Sabah, and has caused irregularities in the electoral rolls.

The statistics department recently revealed that Malaysian citizens make up 2,741,700, while foreigners number 1,158,300 or one-third of the state’s total population.

Shafie noted he had seen instances of individuals having to go to the National Registration Department headquarters in Kuala Lumpur to apply for ICs. – October 13, 2018.