The DAP veteran said the council should also comprise the deputy chief minister and former deputy chief ministers, aside from current and former assemblymen.

“This is an occasion for all the surviving ex-chief ministers to come together and resolve a 50-year-old nightmare before Sept 16 next year,” he said, referring to the 50th anniversary of when Sabah and Sarawak joined the Federation of Malaya to form Malaysia.

Lim also chided current Sabah deputy chief minister Jeffrey Kitingan for having dismissed all the concerns about illegal immigrants who were given ICs in exchange for votes as “noise”.

He accused Kitingan of being more preoccupied with undocumented foreign workers, which was a separate issue although it is often intertwined.

Kitingan is the chairman of the special state Cabinet committee on undocumented foreign workers and immigrants.

“Jeffrey should not forget that before he became Sabah deputy chief minister, he was quite eloquent about the nightmare of illegal immigrants with voting rights.

“He used to describe the issue as a ‘time bomb’, warning that ‘Sabah will continue to face bigger security problems’ if it was not resolved.”