SARAWAK Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg today denied he had said or implied that the rules for Sabahans entering Sarawak would be relaxed, in a news conference while he was in Sabah for an official visit.

In an attempt to set the record straight, Abang Johari, in a media statement this afternoon said he did not in any way suggest that such a relaxation would be implemented without thorough and careful considerations of the social and geopolitical conditions including, problems of refugees.

He was adamant the present immigration arrangement between the two states stands.

A reporter had asked Abang Johari when Sarawak intends to reciprocate Sabah allowing Sarawakians to move freely about the state.

Abang Johari replied: “The time will come… perhaps one day we want to relax a bit again, so it will be free flow again between Sabah and Sarawak”.

He added that “there are other aspects into which we have to look”.

“The unknown factors that may affect us, especially when we have geopolitical situations.

“We have lots of refugees and so on to consider from that aspect.”

However, Sarawakians were spooked by the news reports with leaders of the state’s two non-aligned parties now “reminding” the state government of the need to tighten or to maintain immigration control to ensure homeland security and public safety.

They said any slacking in control of foreigners and people from the Peninsula and Sabah, will have great impact only on businesses and the livelihood of Sarawakians, not least the security of Sarawak.

They have also demanded the state government to revert to the 1963 immigration regulation, where even Malaysians will have to use passports to enter the state.

Currently, producing the MyKad suffices because Sarawak made it the defacto entry document in the mid-1980s.

State Reform Party (Star) president Lina Soo and Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan said there should be no compromise on the powers of the state’s immigration autonomy and the state should instead tighten the entry requirements to keep out undesirable Malaysians.

“The use of the MyKad should have been removed,” Voon said in a media conference in his office this afternoon.

“Why should we give way?” he said, referring to Putrajaya’s insistence that the MyKad is sufficient identification.

Voon said the use of the MyKad began when the failed regional ferry service, Feri Malaysia, started servicing ports on the Peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak in 1986.

“Since there is no more Feri Malaysia, the use of the MyKad should also be stopped.

“Why should we lose every right to the federal government?

“When you give in, it’s very difficult to take back,” he said.

“We cannot allow an open border policy or to relax immigration rules to give unrestricted entry to Sabahans to reciprocate what Sabah did in 1984.

“Whatever hospitality they accorded to us should not necessarily see reciprocal treatment.”

He said Sarawak can return Sabah’s good gestures in many other ways.

Voon and Soo are particularly fearful of the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in Sabah, reportedly carrying fake MyKad, who could find their way to Sarawak when entry requirements are eased.

“We should learn from the Sabah situation where, under Project IC, the local population has been swamped by PTIs (pendatang tanpa izin), and easing entry conditions for Sabahans to come in is to allow the PTIs to enter Sarawak without restraint,” Soo said in a statement.

Soo, who is also a state rights activist, said she believes all “Sarawakians will rise against this preposterous policy were it to be approved”.

“If the Sarawak government is scared even to revive the passport ruling which was our original policy, how can they claim their efficacy to assert our Sarawak rights?” she asked.

She said there must be no compromise over Sarawak immigration rights, and the only way to secure our borders is to impose passport as means of identification, not “to emulate Sabah over its population re-engineering by Project IC” while acceding to the “general opinion that Malaysia is breeding ground for terrorists”. – October 17, 2019.