Sabah MP in Twitter rumpus over ‘racist’ slur on Filipino immigrants

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — A Sabah opposition lawmaker today clashed on Twitter with rights activists and users of the micro-blogging site, who called him out for using a derogatory term to describe illegal immigrants in the East Malaysian state.

PKR’s Penampang MP Darell Leiking got into at least three separate arguments with Eric Paulsen and Michelle Yesudas of Lawyers for Liberty as well as Sabahan independent filmmaker Nadira Ilana, among others, for repeatedly calling Filipino illegal immigrants “pilak”, a pejorative commonly used by local Sabahans.

Leiking’s use of the term prompted Yesudas to accuse him of racism and allegedly making abusive statements against illegal immigrants in the state.

“And goodness, it’s Human Rights Day, @DarellLeiking. If you can’t stop being racist, just try and hold it in for another 8 hours. PLEASE,” Yesudas said in one of her tweets.

Paulsen went on to tell Leiking to “have some class”, saying the PKR MP cannot “go around calling migrants pilak — it’s derogatory, dehumanising” in one of his tweets, in which he tagged PKR de-facto chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Nadira said Leiking’s “trash talk” was unbecoming as a political leader who is expected to have “vision, talk policies, respect ppl, even ur enemies”.

“Freedom of speech is not absolute. It has restrictions when used to propagate hate speech,” she tweeted.

Despite the brickbats, Leiking stood his ground and repeatedly insisted that his outburst was a manifestation of “how Sabahans have been oppressed by demographic engineering” through the alleged “Projek IC” initiative used to grant identity cards to illegal immigrants in the state.

The PKR vice-president went on to tell his Twitter critics to “bring them all to Malaya” if they are so concerned about the welfare of the illegal immigrants.

When contacted, Leiking claimed that it was unfair for Malaysians from outside of Sabah to expect Sabahans to accept the presence of illegal immigrants in their home state, as Sabahans are the victims.

He acknowledged that he would be condemned for taking such a position, but stressed that Sabahans would not be so angry if the federal government had prevented the problem from becoming ingrained.

“Sabahans cannot be made to suffer with the demographic engineering that we have had to endure and accept this as our fate.

“This is wrong to us and even to the PTIs who are used as a tool to change our demography,” he said, using the Malay acronym for illegal immigrants.

Leiking said that it is best for those advocating for humane treatment of illegal immigrants to lead by example and move them to the peninsular, before asking Sabahans to simply accept the problem as their fate.

“Save Sabah by asking Malaya to take responsibility for these people,” he said.

On December 3, Putrajaya released the much-awaited report by the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the illegal immigrant issue plaguing Sabah.

Among other things, the RCI panel found reason to believe that the controversial “Projek IC” may have existed, based on testimonies from several witnesses during its hearing last year.

But it concluded that the scheme was perpetrated by syndicates working together with corrupt officials in government agencies for monetary gain, rather than a politically motivated to entrench BN’s position in the state government.

“Projek IC” is said to be responsible for the abnormal spike in Sabah’s population, where foreigners comprise nearly 30 per cent of the state’s 3.12 million-strong populace.