KOTA KINABALU: Parti Solidariti Tanahairku (Star Sabah) insists the implementation of the proposed Sabah identification card (IC) to Sabahans is the key to resolving the illegal foreigners issue in the state.
Its vice president Kenny Chua said with the Sabah IC, it would be possible to weed out foreigners who were holding dubious documents.
He said foreigners who obtained the Mykad via the "Projek IC" continued to haunt and change Sabah demographics.
"It is important that the issuing agency for Sabah IC must be under the Sabah government," he said in a statement to disagree with Warisan Sabah vice president Datuk Jaujan Sambakong who said the Sabah IC was not a solution.
The Sulabayan state assemblyman instead suggested to empower the Native Courts to assist in confirming the origin of any applicant for Malaysian citizenship.
"However, it would be better for all our systems and institutions to be working as a unit so that we can cross check every single application," Chua suggested.
He cited cross checking with the local community on the ancestors of the applicants, including where they studied and who were their former schoolmates.
"These information provides some proof of their origin as more than one-third of the people in Sabah only arrived in the state some years ago or more.
"They don't have ancestors that we can trace three or four generations before us.
"These newcomers later gave birth to children who are stateless and they continued to have kids of their own in their adulthood. It has become a inter-generational mess," Chua said.
Therefore, the Sabah IC was needed to determine genuine Sabahans, although it would not fully resolve the issue, at least half of the total solution could be done, he said.
Chua said the statement by Jaujan also contradicted his own party deputy president Datuk Darell Leiking who wanted the federal government to consider issuing Sabah IC during the Warisan-led state government.
Darell proposed that the Sabah IC could be used with the MyKad and at the same time identify the bona fide Sabahans.
Since both Darell and Jaujan were divided on the Sabah IC issue, Chua challenged its president, Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal to take a stand on the matter.