By PHILIP GOLINGAI
Sunday October 4, 2009
“Maintaining that it has valid reasons to ganyang Malaysia, Bendera’s leader reveals details of its planned invasion on Oct 8. Should we be worried?”

“… my Indonesian journalist friend Samiaji Bintang brought me for a face-to-face interview with Adian Napitupulu, a 38-year-old Batak man spearheading a vigilante group that has vowed to ganyang (crush) Malaysia.”
It’s not pretty news nor is it new news. It’s a disturbing article to read but in my opinion this is possibly the most pertinent of all current Malaysian political issues. Over the last three decades, East Malaysia has been flooded by illegal immigrants from Indonesia and the Philippines and the numbers are absurdly high. NGO reports have estimated that about 2/3 of our population is now made up of illegal immigrants. Bear in mind that Sabah is ranked third in population density in Malaysia followed after Johor and Selangor.
The U.S. State Department blacklists Malaysia as one of the worst offenders of human trafficking because of how little action the Malaysian government has taken to solve this issue, and they have a point. It is a wonder that this issue is not regarded as the most calamitous issue in Malaysia. With numbers such as these, locals are worried not only about an invasion, but of war. It could be paranoiac exaggeration but they are real fears. There was an occasion some years ago when there was a rumour where we were told to stay home because PTIs were going to attack us with machine guns. No one knew whether to take it seriously. All we could do was hang our heads low and hope it wasn’t true. Damn feeling so helpless.
So allow me to paint a portion of a picture for those of you who have never been to East Malaysia: in Kota Kinabalu, the capital city of the state of Sabah, there is an island across from the main city area called Pulau Gaya. A miniature town built on an island, sitting there as broad as daylight, home to maybe thousands of immigrants. It’s a mysterious island where locals are unwelcome however I have a friend who went there in the 1980’s who told me that they have their own schools, facilities… machine guns and weaponry. It’s a mystery how they have managed to procure the most basic of amenities such as water but they’ve managed on that island for decades. Pulau Gaya is only one of the several PTI (pendatang tanpa izin – illegal immigrants) squatter communities conveniently located around Kota Kinabalu, Tawau, Sandakan.
Through a bad flurry of events including bribery, political corruption and access to the black market, Sabah has been hit far worse than Sarawak. Its neighbouring country, Brunei however, seems untouched. Unlike West Malaysia and Singapore where you can see Chinese or Indian janitor ladies, you would never get that in Sabah.The immigrants who arrive in Sabah take on unpalatable jobs as maids, waitresses, construction workers, labourers, janitors et al. It’s pretty much always Indonesians or Filipinos who do all the grunt work and to tell you the truth, some of the time I can hardly tell the difference between them and the locals because we do have similar heritages. Even I’m part Filipino. Without an education and faced with prejudice for obvious reasons, their arrival in Malaysia is no American Dream. Still, a housekeeper in Malaysia may get paid higher than a doctor from their home countries.
A few years ago it was common to see children hanging around the city central were there are some nightclubs, bars and restaurants. Nowadays it’s not as common a sight but who knows where they’ve gone. These were the children of PTIs born without countries to call home; without citizenships or education, these kids have bleak futures and a lot of them probably don’t know how to speak the original dialects of their home countries. These children will likely not do much better than their parents. It used to be that even past midnight you could see 10 year old girls holding babies or little boys of all ages covered in grime, sniffing glue from plastic bags, walking around begging for money. They didn’t sleep on the streets and it was hard to tell where they came from. If they came from Pulau Gaya, that’s a daily 15-20 minute boat ride just to beg. It’s inhumane but Sabah, which is also the poorest state in Malaysia, has had to practically deal with this issue alone. Although Sabahans have been criticised even by international media, it’s hard for locals to know what to do when through illegal means or corrupt politicking, it has been possible for PTIs to receive MyKads and take advantage of bumiputera privileges whereas in some cases, local natives have been reduced to Permanent Residencies, removing their rights to vote. To add insult to injury, you still get Indonesians and Filipinos who insist that Sabah belongs to them, not Malaysia.
Now where do I stand on this? I think that this problem has gotten way out of hand. Without question, Malaysia needs to take this issue seriously especially since it’s a question of national security. Indonesia and the Philippines have been fighting to claim Sabah for decades and now it seems that they could be willing to take aggressive action. Unanimously and undoubtedly, Sabahans would rather be a part of Malaysia and I would like to think that this is reciprocated. Although I sympathise for the immigrants who have taken great pains to cross international borders, this issue still needs to be dealt with humanely and permanently in order to maintain the peace. I also think that the government and other international bodies should talk to Indonesia, who needs to take responsibility for its people who are fighting tooth and nail to leave their country illegally. Even countries such as Australia have to go through great pains to deal with these asylum seekers. The irony about the recent hunger strikes held by the Indonesian asylum seekers is that there are also Malaysians on board the ship. No pun intended, in the pursuit of better lives, we’re all on the same boat.
It only takes PTIs RM450 to hop onto a boat to brave a fairly difficult and I’m sure, hardly safe voyage to Malaysia. This problem will only escalate if not taken by the horns. Nonetheless it is certainly not in my opinion that all Indonesian and Filipino immigrants legal and illegal should be extradited, nor do I wish for them to be held up in detention centers. I think that there is some room in Malaysia to allow certain numbers in for skilled immigration. There has to be a way that we can compromise. Research needs to be made because we can no longer afford to make callous decisions in the effort to eradicate this problem. These PTIs are human beings and they need to be treated as such without compromising the interests or security of state and country. Malaysians need to know that Sabah’s problems are also Malaysia’s problems.
Nonetheless, don’t get me wrong and don’t let the Ministry of Tourism freak out at me. Sabah is still safe to travel to. Hahah. “Erm yeah right, thank you for being so convincing.” Seriously. Hey, I’m going back next week and I’m happy to. I’m gonna be eating ngau chap, drinking beer and watching the mountain, not just worrying about dodging bullets. Yeah. So convincing. Whatever. More ngau chap for me. ]:p
Anyway, I digress. I suggest that those of you who are unfamiliar with the subject, do some research online. It’s an important subject for Malaysians to be knowledgeable about and there are fascinating articles all over the internet. Here are a few to start you off on a major human rights issue happening in Malaysia:
http://www.thenutgraph.com/aliens-in-east-malaysia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigrants_in_Malaysia
http://www.malaysiakini.com/opinions/46691
Good day and good luck or as they would say in Sabah, aramaiti.
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