I refer to the Malaysiakini report Kit Siang challenges speaker's ruling on Sabah motion .

It appears that we have identified the common enemy of the people of Sabah: its leaders (state leaders, federal government leaders and MPs).

We have been seriously duped into believing that these leaders are genuinely fighting for the cause of Sabahans. Recently, a motion to set up a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) for illegal immigrants in Sabah was rejected by a Sabahan, Deputy Speaker Ronald Kiandee for dubious reasons. Response from other Sabah MPs towards this motion has been - oddly - lukewarm.

Anifah Aman, Bung Mokhtar Radin and Ghapur Salleh all suggested that the RCI is unnecessary and not what the people of Sabah want. This is an outright lie.

More shockingly, MPs who previously strongly advocated for the illegal immigrant problem to be tackled such as Bernard Dompok and Pairin Kitingan were silent and disinterested in the motion. What is going on?

Were all their previous fiery speeches just a wayang for us? When the time came for action they were mute.

The illegal immigrants problem is not merely about having too many undocumented immigrants but also about documented immigrants who obtained their citizenship with the aid of shady government policies. This is not a mere allegation because there is substantial evidence. The most evident were exposed during the 1999 petition to nullify the election for the state assembly district of Likas.

Further, a scheme of systematically granting citizenship to alter the demographic pattern of Sabah for the benefit of certain political parties was unearthed. This practice, also known as ‘Project IC’ or Project M , has also been documented in international journals such as The International Studies Journal .

There are books written by one Mutalib MD exposing a conspiracy to grant citizenship to Indonesian and Filipino migrants. What do our so-called leaders plan to do about these serious allegations?

Anifah Aman said he preferred a Parliamentary Select Committee. His reason was that he wanted Sabah leaders from Barisan Nasional to get involved and participate in the problem-solving process. He added that a royal commission would exclude leaders from such process, which he suggests isn't what Sabahans want. He is dead wrong.

We want an independent body to investigate this matter. Not representatives from political parties which are suspected to be involved in such practice. Why would they want to be involved in it? Are they hiding something? They definitely look like they have something to hide. Don't they have other things to do, important initiatives to fulfil in Sabah like poverty eradication, providing basic amenities to rural folks and seeking full ministerial posts (if that's what they want) for instance.

According to the Department of Statistics, in 2006 it is estimated that 25% of the total population in Sabah are non-citizens. That is about 750,000 people. We are seriously worried that if the practice of giving citizenship to migrants truly existed in the past, what is going to stop the 25% non-citizens from being given citizenship as well?

Based on the revelations from the Likas petition, regretfully we do not have faith in our leaders anymore. The excess immigrants, illegal or legal, have to be deported. This is a necessary first step. An inquiry into the truth behind the allegations of widespread granting of citizenship must proceed.

This is no more a political issue. Echoing what Chong Eng Leong (PBS supreme council member) said, it is not about being anti-Barisan or pro-Pakatan, but it is a matter of defending the sovereignty of Sabah within Malaysia.

There are enough reasons to act even without me delving into the issue of national security and the threat of terrorists. The Sipadan kidnappings should have been a clear warning to the authorities. The issue of crime is also a pressing one, especially when there are so many unemployed foreigners here.

Due to the reasons above, our message to the Barisan Nasional MPs from Sabah is this - we want an independent royal commission of inquiry to fix the illegal immigrant problem. Nothing less. If you ignore our calls, we will take it as a message that you have no intention at all to solve this problem. Therefore making you enemies of the people of Sabah.