Sabah IC motion to be brought to state assembly in March, says SAPP
Published on: Tuesday, February 22, 2022
By: Malay Mail
.jpg "Sabah IC motion to be brought to state assembly in March, says SAPP")
Sabah Progressive Party deputy president Edward Dagul said the motion will be proposed by nominated assemblyman and party president Datuk Yong Teck Lee (pic). ― Malay Mail pic
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), a component of the state’s Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) government, will put forward a motion on a Sabah Identity Card (Sabah IC) to the state assembly when it is held next month.
The party’s deputy president Edward Dagul said the motion will be proposed by nominated assemblyman and party president Datuk Yong Teck Lee.
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“The call for the Sabah IC has been highlighted and pursued for many years and it should be timely to implement it for the people of Sabah,” he said in a statement today.
This comes after a recent proposal by the federal government to issue a special card for foreigners in Sabah, which has received heavy criticism from both sides of the political divide.
Dagul said the Sabah IC is expected to resolve many issues, such as the issuance of identity cards in Project IC, dubious identity cards, phantom voters and Sabah’s undocumented natives, especially in the remote interiors with difficult access to the towns.
“The Sabah IC is not a replacement of the MyKad, but a guarantee of protection of our rights as genuine Sabahans and deserving Malaysians,” he said.
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According to Dagul, the Sabah IC was advocated by SAPP as a mechanism to safeguard Sabahans’ citizenship status and a means by the state government to filter out dubious MyKads through a stringent process.
He said a committee, comprising several party leaders and chaired by Dagul, has been set up to supervise and to finalise working papers on the Sabah IC.
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“Meanwhile, a team of young lawyers will be working together to provide vital input in terms of legislation to ensure its legality within the state ordinance in the proposal and that it is usable in the future.
“We have completed the working paper and taken into account various aspects, including legal and socio-economic matters. If this matter is proposed later, we will submit the details of it to the government for further action,” he added.
Dagul added that the Sabah IC has the support of various leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Jeffery Kitingan and Opposition leader and Warisan deputy president Datuk Darell Leiking.
The Sabah IC was previously mooted as a solution to weed out a sizeable illegal immigrant community since the 1970s.
Some have since obtained some form of identity or even citizenship via dubious means.
It has been widely reported that many were issued ICs and later MyKads to be registered as voters.
“Their presence threatens the sovereignty of our state and country by having the right to choose a government through the ballot,” said Dagul.
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