Aliens & Predators

Sabah deserves a place in Malaysia's Book of Records because of a recent great discovery. We have proven that a human being is able to talk through his anus. It is a special talent—that! Check it out here.

In recent months, there have been calls by several parties in Sabah for the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate allegations of aliens getting identification documents through dubious means. It has been reported that Sabah's population had increased from a mere 648,000 in 1970 to 2.6 million in 2000. That works out to be about 300% increase—a figure which is about threefold that of Sarawak's within the same period.

Sabah and Sarawak are the eastern states of Malaysia, and had in the past been considered as lagging in development when compared to the other states in the west. In some ways, I think we are still lagging, although we've been closing the gap over the years.

I don't know if it had anything to do with the time taken to improve electricity supply throughout the state. Or the frequent power cuts which is still prevalent even up to now. Maybe that had resulted in the population having nothing exciting to do to amuse themselves in the evenings, so much so that they ended up amusing themselves in the bedroom? I'm guessing maybe that's the explanation our leaders are trying to shove down our throats. But even if that were indeed true, 300% is still a mind-boggling figure to be reckoned with.

One would have good grounds to wonder what exactly caused the population boom. As a matter of common sense and logic, it's only natural to suspect the possibility of influx of foreigners into Sabah throughout the years—perhaps some through legal means, and some through illegal means. Either way, we Sabahans would like to know.

However, this is not a new issue in Sabah. Each time the general elections are approaching, this particular issue would be raised again somehow. We have had several people occupying the Chief Minister's seat in Sabah, but none of them was successful in getting the Federal Government to set up the RCI to investigate the abnormally rapid population growth.

The general presumption—though admittedly, it may be unfounded—is that some predators were fast to capitalise on the desperation of the aliens by issuing identification documents not according to proper procedures, thus making fast bucks. These unscrupulous predators can get into trouble if the RCI proposal goes through.

If it's indeed true that citizenship had been given to foreigners by illegal means, it is somewhat too late now to remedy the situation. Imagine, for example, someone who did not deserve to be a Malaysian, but was able to buy the documents 10-20 years ago. When his children were born, they would have automatically become Malaysians. What are we gonna do now? Even if we could trace back to the root of those documents, how are we supposed to undo the mistake? Are we going to send off the children to the lands of their parents' which they've never known of?

As I said, these are merely the general presumption of the ordinary Sabahans in the street. But then that's the main reason why we are asking for a grand scale investigation to get at the truth of the matter once and for all. If we're wrong in our presumption, then so be it!

Nevertheless, I don't believe it's gonna happen anytime soon, because I have a feeling that the powers that be can already guess what's the outcome of the investigation will be; and they can think of no possible remedy for the complications that can arise. So the simplest solution to the problem, in true Malaysian style, is to sweep the matter under the carpet.

In the mean time, as in the movie, aliens and predators are both gonna continue to haunt us.