By Queville To | Free Malaysia Today
PENAMPANG: DAP is planning to go in search of destitute Sabahans stranded in Peninsular Malaysia.
A special gathering is being planned for them in the Klang Valley to listen to their plight and to find ways to help them.
Speaking at a news conference here, Ipoh Timor DAP MP Lim Kit Siang said the gathering was tentatively fixed for April 18.
“We call on all the Sabahans currently working or stranded in Peninsular Malaysia to come to this meeting so that their voices can be heard.”
The meeting is being organised by the Sabah DAP chief-cum-MP for Kota Kinabalu Dr Hiew King Cheu, and coordinated by DAP MPs for Serdang and Segambut, Teo Nie Ching and Lim Lip Eng. Many of the Sabahans said to be stranded in the Peninsula are believed to victims of various forms of socio-economic neglect and deprivation, either through exploitation or unemployment.
Hiew said that there are about 160,000 to 200,000 Sabahans working in the various sectors in Peninsular Malaysia and quite a sizeable number are from the interior of Sabah, including Ranau and Tambunan.
He said that if both the federal and the state governments are reluctant to help this group of Sabahans, DAP would.
Meanwhile, Lim reiterated his call for the lifting of the ban on the book The Golden Son of Kadazan’.
Describing Peter Mojuntin as a hero not only for Sabahans and the Kadazandusun Murut (KDM) community but also Malaysians as a whole, he said one way of giving proper recognition to Mojuntin in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Sabah in Malaysia (in 2013) would be to lift the ban on the book.
The book by former Melaka State Assemblyman, Bernard Santa Maria, was banned in 1978.
“I hope that this issue will be raised by the BN MPs in the current debate on the King’s speech in Parliament. Our Sri Tanjung State assemblyman will raise it in the State Assembly, next month, and we call on not only the people of Sabah but all Malaysians to support and endorse this online petition for the lifting of the ban on the book,” he said.
Lim later also signed the online petition lauched by Sabah DAP, calling on the BN government to lift the ban.