Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah state assembly was told today that 810,443, or 23.7%, of Sabah’s population of 3,418,785 comprised non-citizens.
Sabah chief minister Hajiji Noor said the remaining 2,608,324 were Malaysian citizens, according to the 2020 population census.
He said this meant that the claim by Api-Api representative Christina Liew that one million Filipinos were in the state was inaccurate.
“Nonetheless, the state government will continuously address issues related to the influx of migrants as brought up by state assembly representatives,” he said in winding up the debate on the Yang di-Pertua Negeri’s opening address.
Hajiji said the government had established a state-level special committee chaired by deputy chief minister Jeffrey Kitingan to find the best approach to resolve the problem of undocumented migrants.
“The committee will make its recommendations to the state Cabinet within three months,” he said.
- Sabah’s 40% tax goal -
Hajiji also told the state assembly that regardless of what had been said at the federal level, the state would continue to pursue its rightful claim for 40% of taxes collected by the federal government from Sabah to be returned to it.
“These are taxes that should be returned to the state government, (so) this is our priority. This is the basis of our claim as enshrined in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
“Whatever that was said (about the 40% tax) at the federal level, the state will not give up its claim on this issue, and this will always remain our stand,” he said to the thumping of tables by assemblymen.
Senallang assemblyman Shafie Apdal had earlier asked if the state government would pursue the matter following finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz’s reply in Parliament that the 40% tax formula no longer applied as a new agreement had been reached between Sabah and the federal government.
Shafie said the federal government was constitutionally-bound to return the 40% Sabah-derived revenue to the state along with other matters agreed upon in the MA63.
To this, Hajiji said the state had never relinquished any of its claims in the MA63.
Hajiji also said Sabah had no intention of changing the title of “chief minister” to “premier”, as done by Sarawak, for now.
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