2. The Malaysian State and Irregular Migration

This is a term often used by NGOs to refer to people who inhabit a grey zone, those who may not strictly conform to the definition of refugee as laid out in the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, or who may not be recognised by the state to be such, but who display characteristics of being a refugee and live in refugee-like circumstances.

Sabah and Sarawak’s inclusion into Malaya was in part to act as a counterweight to Singapore, the other entrant into the federation, which was predominantly Chinese (Milne and Mauzy 1999). It is within this context that many of Malaysian state’s policies including its position towards different immigrant categories were made, though Singapore later withdrew in 1965, to become an independent state primarily over disagreements on the power-sharing arrangements between the different ethnic groups.

Reports vary, but the number of deaths as a result of the riots is said to be 196.

At the time of the introduction of the National Economic Policy (NEP) in 1970, the Malays reportedly had a 2.4 per cent share of the economy, while the Chinese and foreigners had the bulk. The NEP, through its various affirmative action policies, aimed to increase the Malay share of the economy to 30 per cent. Some of these policies included the provision of scholarships and training programmes specifically for Bumiputera students as well as setting quotas for Bumiputera participation in higher education and the corporate sector i.e. all initial public offerings (IPOs) were required to allocate 30% of its shares for Bumiputera investors. In 1990, the NEP was succeeded by the National Development Policy. The latest national economic blueprint was introduced in 2009 and is referred to as the New Economic Model.

Barisan Nasional in an earlier incarnation, prior to 1973, was known as the Alliance coalition. Barisan Nasional is a coalition of 13 parties, but the three main parties with the most parliamentary seats are UMNO, The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC). The prime minister, deputy prime minister and other key ministerial portfolios – Finance, Education, Trade and Industry, Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs – are always chosen from within UMNO.

To give context to the Southern Thai scenario, it is important to note that the seeds of discontent were sown earlier in the century when the ethnic Malay-dominated provinces of became a part of Thailand only after the signing of the Anglo-Siamese treaty of 1909.

This task force was later discontinued in 1997 having proven ineffective in managing irregular migrants (Jones 2000).

This was done, it would seem, with the intent of changing the demography of the state and in turn altering the voting pattern in favour of the UMNO party. The end goal was to completely shift the political power out of the hands of the Kadazan-Dusuns who at one time formed the majority group in terms of population size and who view themselves as being the indigenous people of Sabah (Sadiq 2005).

By 2010, UNHCR had on record as many as 61,400 Burmese refugees officially registered, which would not be a true reflection of the entire population given that many would have opted not to come forward to register with the organisation.

In the case of the Acehnese, the factors involved in their deportation in the 1990s were a little more complicated, which had to do with Indonesian-Malaysian relations as I discuss in subsequent chapters.

The fear was that there might be a major swing of Sabah members of parliament over to the opposition, resulting in the need to call for fresh general elections.

In that same report, he is quoted as saying, “ the Foreign Ministry has and is studying several of the main treaties, towards the participation of those treaties without bringing harm to the sovereignty and security of the country and at the same time will not compromise the policies and cultural characteristics of the nation”.

By comparison, the police seemed to give the card greater validation than their immigration counterparts.

It will become apparent later on that the number of Chin refugees and asylum seekers put out by UNHCR are not the same as those cited by CRC. This is to be expected as the data collection methods and the time of collection would have been different. Indeed any figures cited by any organisation or government agency should be seen for what they are, estimations.

The suspension has never been officially lifted.

For a detailed explanation of the Iskandar region including a downloadable version of the IRDA 2007 act, the Malaysian government has set up the following website http://​www.​irda.​com.​my/​.