SAPP moves emergency motions following flag burnings

Kota Kinabalu, 6 April, 2009: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) two assemblymen and two members of Parliament would move emergency motion to compel the Federal Government to make sure that The Philippines will drop its claim on Sabah.

Luyang and Likas assemblymen, Melanie Chia and Datuk Liew Teck Chan as well as Sepanggar and Tawau members of Parliament, Datuk Eric Majimbun and Datuk Chua Soon Bui would move the motion at the next sittings.

The State Legislative Assembly sitting is to start on April 16.

"The move is necessary to determine Sabah's status," they said in a joint statement, here, yesterday.

They said the move is vital following a man who claimed to be the descendent of Sultan of Sulu who led 11 others were arrested in Lahad Datu few days ago for burning Sabah flags during an illegal assembly.

"We do not know their motive, but the status of the leader who claimed to be a descendent of the Sultan of Sulu is a cause for concern," the four SAPP leaders added.

They said, the flooding of illegal immigrants all over Sabah who have been arrested and unable to go home to their country of origins due to technical problems might lead them to cause disturbances here.

According to them, thousands illegal immigrants especially Filipinos have been placed at few temporary detention centres but could not be repatriated because of some technicalities and some of them had caused riots.

They said it was understood that former Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos had some time ago stated that his country has dropped its claims on Sabah.

The Malaysians in Sabah are concerned when a foreign wire has reported last year that current Philippines President Gloria Arroyo Macapagal has never make any stand whether to recognize Marcos' statement or otherwise.

The SAPP leaders further said that Sabah's status is very crucial as it would make all Malaysians residing in this State in ease if the claims had really been dropped.

On Saturday, the Lahad Datu police have arrested 12 people including a man who claimed to be a descendent of the Sultan of Sulu, for burning few pieces of State flags.

District police chief Supt Md Suhaimi Abdul Rahman said at about 8.40am, police received information that a group of men had burned six Sabah flags in front of the town's market and a supermarket.

He said some of the men were also seen carrying yellow flags with a red insignia of a lion on them.

By the time police reached the scene, the men fled and the State flags were found burnt.
Suhaimi added that some of the men then were seen running towards the district police headquarters where they were promptly arrested and being investigated for illegal assembly.

"We are still investigating the motive of the incident but a 41-year-old man who was said to be the group's leader had also claimed that he was a descendent of the Sultan of Sulu," Suhaimi added.

Those detained by the police were all males aged between 14 and 41. More than 80 police personnel were immediately deployed around the town area following the incident.

The SAPP leaders said the nationality of the others must also be checked whether they are genuine Malaysians or foreigners holding Malaysian Identity Cards.

According to them, the killing of a man in Tingkayu, by foreigners who had fled the country recently over land dispute also caused another concern.

They said the unlawful actions of those foreigners residing and making the State their rice bowl could not be forgiven at all.

They added that the government should not allow such actions, which could put the safety of the country in danger.

The government, in particular, the security force must stop those kinds of incident before it could escalate to something that is more serious.