RCI must haul up anyone

Published on: Sunday, May 20, 2012

Kota Kinabalu: The Terms of Reference (TOR) for the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrant issues in Sabah must be kept short in order to keep its focus on the real objective.Suhakam Commissioner Jannie Lasimbang said it was important that the RCI be given the authority to subpoena anybody they want to facilitate in the investigations."What we want is investigation into the extraordinary population boom," she said at the Proham Round Table Discussion on Citizenship Issues in Sabah at the School of Social Science, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Saturday.However, she does not believe that the Philippines and Indonesia are eager to welcome their nationals back since for as long as they are in Sabah the problem will not be theirs.She said political differences must be set aside in order for the RCI to do its job effectively. It was also pointed out during the discussion that in the case of the death of Teo Beng Hock, the Government had stated that it was not obliged to follow the recommendations of the RCI.In this respect, she said the Suhakam was open to any suggestion to be part of the RCI. Moderator, Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria said the setting up of the RCI is under the purview of the Commission of Inquiry Act and it has the power to subpoena any witness.Under the Act, it provides protection for witnesses and they cannot be sued or charged in court for their statements, similarly the commissioners are also immune to lawsuits, he said.Later, Dr Jayasooria said the roundtable discussion showed there was a consensus that the population growth in Sabah was not proportionate to those in other states in the country.There was also a consensus that the RCI was the best vehicle to address the issue and its main TOR is to investigate the reason for the extraordinary population boom in Sabah, to review all data, complaints, anomalies, examples or sightings that local people were being outnumbered and to make specific recommendations to the Government to solving this.He said there must also be transparency in terms of the people appointed to the RCI to ensure its credibility and independence in order to restore public confidence.The Human Rights Promotion Association (Proham) was set up in March last year to accommodate former Suhakam commissioners and the Royal Malaysian Police Commission of Inquiry commissioners.Proham Deputy Chairman, Datuk Prof Hamdan Adnan said the former commissioners felt they could still contribute through the vast experience accumulated during their service in the two commissions.Suhakam commissioners are only allowed to sit for a maximum two terms.

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