183. A disgraced Pairin

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/09/11/mahathir-never-trusted-pairin/

Mahathir never trusted Pairin

FMT Staff | September 11, 2013

If there is a person or individual who isn't trusted, perhaps by the government, then he doesn't have a say on any matters pertaining to security, says Dr Mahathir.

KOTA KINABALU: Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad insinuated in his testimony at the Royal Commisson of Inquiry (RCI) into the issuance of identity cards to illegal immigrants in Sabah in the 1990s that then chief minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan could not be trusted.
Responding to a question by Sabah Law Association representative Ansari Abdullah on why Pairin, who was democratically elected, was removed as the chairman of the state security council, Mahathir said: “The security of the country and the state is a federal matter.”
“If there is a person or individual who isn’t trusted, perhaps by the government, then he doesn’t have a say on any matters pertaining to security.”
At this juncture RCI chairman Steven Shim, who is also the former Chief Justice of Sabah and Sarawak, interjected. Shim informed Mahatir that by convention, Pairin should have been made chairman of the state security council.
Shim then asked Mahathir the reason for Pairin’s removal.
“I don’t know the exact reason but there were many reasons,” Mahathir said.
Shim further asked Mahathir if he was aware that Pairin had also visited Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when he was the PM and presented him with a memo on the illegal immigrants issue.
“No, I didn’t follow up on this issue after I stepped down from office. I am not aware of the meeting between Abdullah and the Sabah ministers, “ he said.
Pairin, who was the 199th witness, had it his testimony last month reportedly made several startling revelations.
Among them were the fact:
i) he was reprimanded by the then Berjaya government, of which he was then a member, for raising the issue of illegal immigrants as far back as 1978;
ii) he was removed as chairman of the State Security Council in 1990;
iii) he raised in Parliament the issue of illegal immigrants holding two identity cards each with two different addresses and voting in two different constituencies;
iv) he had sent a memorandum to the (then) prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in 2007 outlining the problems caused by illegal immigrants and solutions to overcome them, but it was not acted upon;
v) he suggested that immigrants who needed to work in the plantation and construction sectors be given work permits and all other illegals sent back to their country of origin;
vi) he met Indonesian president Suharto to impress on him that the workers from that country must go through the proper channels to work in Sabah instead of entering through the back door;
vii) that there is nothing the state and he could have done as chief minister as the enforcement of the law and the related agencies like the police and army came under the jurisdiction of the federal government;
viii) that if not solved, the illegal immigrant problem would threaten the security and sovereignity of the nation; and
ix) that there was no political will (in the past) and determination to find a permanent solution to the problem.
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