KOTA KINABALU: The problem of foreign illegal workers had not been conclusively solved by both the State and Federal leadership throughout the years, said former Chief Minister Datuk Harris Mohd Salleh.
“The problem has become worst because the Federal policies on foreign workers keep changing almost every week;” he said, adding that nobody bothered to look and try to understand why these workers entered Sabah in the first place and why those who entered legally opted to become illegal.
“It is reported that there are now more than 150,000 illegal foreign workers employed mostly as harvesters in more than 1.5 million hectares of plantations in Sabah.
“Also no one seems to worry of care about the replacement of these workers in Sabah’s oil palm plantation industry without who it will come to a stand still,” he said at the Convention on Sabah Issues on Saturday.
Harris said all they seemed to care was to ensure their future political survival. “They have to take the popular stand of playing to the hysterical and unthinking demands and accusations against the Federal Government,” he added.
The problem is relatively easier to solve simply by either legalising their stay or sending them back, he said.
In this respect, Harris said the Government would have to find Sabahans as replacements for the 150,000 illegal foreign workers targeted for deportation.
For him, the most serious problem in Sabah was to provide land for landless Sahahans.
“The problem of illegal foreign workers can be more easily solved by simply formulating the most appropriate and correct policy. Land ownership is the source of hope and future well-being of Sabahans.
“Therefore, the problem of providing land for the landless should be taken as top priority by the leaders. Nevertheless, these problems remain as problems because leaders are not serious and not honest both to themselves and Sabahans.” he said. He reminded that in 1983, his Berjaya Government reserved 906,300 acres of State land for alienation to over (60,000 landless Sabahans at 15 acres each.
Regrettably, he said a senior (ex-PBS) political leader reported a few years ago that more than 80 per cent of this land that was committed to the smallholders, was alienated to local companies, which then sold the companies and land to Peninsular companies.
Harris claimed the problem of land for landless Sabahans had worsened compared to the early 1980s because the number of 60,000 landless Sabahans has greatly multiplied.
Towards this end, he said the government must seriously identify and locate as replacements parcels of State land to replace the 906,300 acres that were committed to the 60,000 landless Sabahans.
“The total acreage required may increase considerably because the number of landless Sabahans has now multiplied to a few hundred thousand,” he said.