I would like to thank Yang Berhormat Terrence Siambun, treasurer-general of Parti Warisan Sabah for responding to my interview with Free Malaysia Today (published on June 5,2017).

In that interview, I spoke about concerns my constituents had relayed based on what they had been hearing.

Regrettably, Terrence has failed to acknowledge that these fears were those of my constituents.

I did not claim that illegal immigrants would take control of the state, as alleged by Terrence. In fact, I even acknowledged the fact that Warisan president Shafie Apdal had denied that Warisan was a party for illegal immigrants.

I urge Terrence to revisit my statement to be very clear about what I had said.

What is perplexing is that the treasurer-general of Warisan had to respond to the question I posed in relation to the president’s stand and proposed solution to the illegal immigrant issue.

Why has he remained silent? Why can’t the Warisan president come out and state his stand and solution to the issue if his stand is also the party’s stand?

I am not the first, and I certainly will not be the last, to ask Shafie to state his stand and solution.

Yet, it seems that the responses will come from anyone but Shafie. Can’t the president speak for himself or does he not want to?

Terrence shouldn’t try to mislead the people by ignoring the efforts of the authorities in resolving the illegal immigrant issue, including the expelling of over half a million illegal immigrants from the state since 1990.

Abdul Rahim Ismail is chairman, Sabah Barisan Nasional Backbenchers Club

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