Sabah DAP has urged Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak not to go to polls until the conclusion of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigration.

Sabah DAP chairperson Jimmy Wong said this was to ensure that BN was not dangling the RCI as an election carrot.

“RCI should be treated as serious matter, therefore Najib should not call for general election before any the results are tabled,” he said in a statement today.

Meanwhile, Wong expressed concern that the Najib has yet to identity the powers and scope of the RCI, despite the fact that cabinet had decided on the matter since February.

“The RCI needs to fulfill several requirements in order to solve the chain of structural problems on the issue of illegal immigration,” he said in a statement today.

Chiefly, the RCI must be totally independent and involve non-government actors to ensure that there is no interference from the government.

'Simon Sipaun for RCI head'

To achieve this, Wong said Sabah DAP was fully supportive for calls to make former state secretary and Human Rights Commission member Simon Sipaun to head the RCI.

Wong added that the RCI must be given wide investigative powers to take action to resolve the problem and ensure that its recommendations would not be ignored.

He said the RCI must also be given powers to take legal action against those found responsible over the influx of illegal immigrants in the state.

Wong said that there appeared to be a lack of sincerity in government efforts to investigate claims of a clandestine attempt to increase Sabah’s population illegally and this was further reflected in the lengthy delays to have the RCI in operation.

“It could be a kind of political gimmick to buy votes instead of looking into ways of solving the problems,” he said.