SEMPORNA: Semporna will have far more potential if issues on illegal immigrants are addressed thoroughly.
Former Semporna district council member Nixon Abdul Habi said the government could develop more of the areas into tourist destinations.
"However, instead of building resorts or five-star accommodations at those potential sites, the squatter areas are expanding there.
"Based on the live satellite Google earth view, those illegal structures even encroached into the forest reserve in Semporna.
"Semporna should become a place full of tourists, not illegal immigrants," said Nixon, 54, who was born and raised in the district.
He had served as the Semporna district council member for four terms.
Based on a survey conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic, there were 6,000 squatter houses in the district.
Nixon added that the large presence of non-citizens in the district is also causing losses to the government's resources particularly on water supply.
He said on average, about 48 million litres of water come out of the state's treatment plant in a day. However, the government collects only 18 million litres.
"We have to manage this, otherwise we are losing 30 million litres a day. The state government could be losing at least RM50,000 a day or RM18.25 million a year in revenue," he said, adding that the situation also causes a shortage of clean water for business premises and locals.
Nixon said that there is a need for strong political will to address the issues associated with illegal immigrants which include demolishing illegal structures and re-issuance of Sabah IC to identify genuine people of Sabah.
When asked about the human rights issue in tackling the matter, he said the rights of indigenous people to basic necessities including basic infrastructure, healthcare, education and others need to be given priority.
"On top of that, the most worrying issue is the security and sovereignty of the country."
During an interview with former Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal a few months ago on the fish bombing issue, he acknowledged that there was an increased number of people in his constituency from about 43,000 to more 70,000.
He had said that he had reminded the authorities, particularly the Fisheries department and marine police, to make sure that surveillance is being done.
"The same goes to the Village Development and Security Committee to play their roles. They should take stern actions whether it is surveillance, rounds up or doing checks on them.
"After surveillance of immigrants is complete, the authorities should deal with the matter according to law," said the seventh term Semporna member of parliament.
In November last year, state Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor had said that the government had begun its 6-month data collection with the pioneer project covering several oil palm plantations belonging to the state-owned Sawit Kinabalu group.