SABAH RCI Drastic changes in the Sabah population are endangering the high level of inter-ethnic tolerance and harmony in the state, the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into illegal immigrants has heard.

M Knatayya, an associate professor specialising in ethnic relations at Universiti Malaysia Sabah, said this was because the Kadazandusun community felt "marginalised" after losing its position as the largest ethnic group in Sabah.

azlanWhile a study Knatayya conducted in 2007 found that people in the state are very tolerant - with an "almost perfect score" on a scale to measure ethnic tolerance - things are likely deteriorating now.

"Ethnic relations is not like a fixed deposit. When the social or political situation changes, (ethnic relations) can change. It depends on what information reaches the people's minds, such as drastic changes in population.

"The statistics (from 2007) only capture (sentiments at) one point of time but my observation shows this is going down.”

Knatayya said Sabahans in 2007 had scored 1.2 to 1.3 on the Borgados social distance scale, with 1 being ‘very tolerant’ and 5 being ‘not tolerant’, similar to Bosnia-Herzegovina prior to the 1991-95 war.

Asked how Bosnia descended into such a brutal state, he said: "It's difficult to say but it could be because of political mobilisation by leaders. We call them ethnic entrepreneurs who have an interest upon ethnic (mobilisation).”

Knatayya said the 1,000-plus respondents in his 2007 study in Keningau, Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu were found to be very tolerant when asked if they were open to marrying, sharing a home with, starting a business with and being in a political party with people outside their ethnic groups.

He said this could partly be attributed to the fact that there already were many inter-marriages in Sabah, with nine out of every 10 people interviewed saying they have families from different ethnic groups.

The study was conducted among the Bajau, Kadazandusun, Murut, Malay and Suluk peoples, he said, but not one of them could say they were purely from one ethnicity.

Animosity towards foreigners

However, Knatayya said, the locals have "animosity" towards refugees or other migrants, especially if they have been granted citizenship.

"There is some reluctance to accept, although there is high level of tolerance among natives who have resided here for a long time.

"Even when I conducted a study on street children (in Kota Kinabalu, for the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development), people in the meeting (to discuss the findings) said 'no' to absorbing them into society, because 'our own children are suffering, so why should we care for the welfare of foreigners?'," Knatayya said.

He said that if the local people could not show goodwill and acceptance towards children, then it was less likely that they would accept adult foreigners.

"People feel marginalised and cannot accept this thing... Thinking of how people will react, I think accepting (foreigners as equal citizens) will make things worse," he said.

He added that a middle path could be to offer the foreigners, particularly those who have lived in Sabah for decades, a status that does not equal them to citizens, but would give them more rights than under the current arrangement.

While he could not divulge much about his study on street children as it  has been marked “confidential” by the ministry, Knatayya said the population of street children in Kota Kinabalu is "very big".

"I'm not happy with the situation...We don't want them to be a burden in the future. We already have evidence of problems like prostitution and gangsterism," he said.