The opposition has long used the issue of illegal migrant to rile up people but never offer solutions, said Urban-Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan said.

The Sabah BN secretary said this after declining to attend a debate on the Royal Commission of Inquiry into immigrants in Sabah report organised by opposition leaders there last night.

"For  decades the opposition leaders of Sabah have been using the same modus operandi .

"They will bring out the anger in you, flare up the emotion in you and when you are all euphoric about it, they will leave you high and dry only to fall flat-faced on the ground.

"Thus leaving you exasperated and frustrated because they could not provide a doable and practical solution," he said in a statement.

Playing political one-upmanship, he said, does not solve the problem and only reduces the problem into a shouting match.

Instead, Sabah BN will hold forums on the matter involving experts who can give a more balanced view locally and overseas to cater to Sabahans abroad.

Holistic approach needed

He also reiterated his view that only a broad-based solution can end the problem in Sabah, like reducing dependency on foreign labour and clamping down on squatter colonies.

Sabahans must also be instilled with confidence that the government is planning to secure the state’s porous borders, he said.

Yesterday, several NGOs, activists and Sabah’s opposition lawmakers invited Rahman to attend a debate on the RCI last night.

The RCI found that the mass issuance of identity cards to migrants was done by syndicates for money, and not political reasons.

This debunks widely-circulated claims that federal agencies and BN politicians were in cahoots to issue citizenships to destabilize political opponents in Sabah.

However, the RCI said the citizenship-for-votes scheme commonly referred to as ‘Project IC’ probably did happen given the testimonies of five witnesses who were detained under the Internal Security Act for illegally issuing ICs

The RCI said it cannot conclusively say it happened as the testimonies were never cross-examined in a trial.

Sabah opposition leaders had proposed the government retract all ICs issued in Sabah at the material time and issue new ICs, to weed out those illegally issued.

The RCI said it cannot recommend this as there were no proposals given on how to surmount the logistical challenges.

Instead the RCI recommended a permanent committee on the issue of illegal migrants to find solutions to the problem.