KOTA KINABALU, June 2 — Sabah is set to go ahead with implementing an identity card for foreign nationals in the state following a majority consensus from a townhall meeting here.

Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan said that a favourable response from the meeting of Opposition politicians, non-governmental organisations and native groups was akin to a green light that the state needed to proceed with its plan to regulate “inland foreigners”.

“It has been a good session. Now you can say we have the mandate to proceed on the collection of data, and then giving the foreigners in Sabah an identity,” he said.

He said that the process will involve the building of a digital data bank which can be updated at any time.

“It will be an integrated data system that will be monitored by authorities under the Home Ministry and other enforcement agencies,” he said.

A voting session earlier saw 89 per cent of attendees in favour of the identity card, while 99 per cent had voted in favour of digitalising the data.

Kitingan said the result of the townhall session will be compiled into a report by the committee tasked with resolving the problem. It will then be submitted to the state government before being brought to the Home Ministry.

The project will focus on “inland” foreigners — those who hold various immigration documents like the “burung burung” and IMM13 document — while others are “normal immigration or legal issues”.

“We are still in the process of naming the document. As you noticed, using the word ‘card’ is sensitive, whatever card it is. Some suggestions called it ‘kad warga asing‘ or ‘kad bukan warganegara‘ or just ‘digital card’,” he said.

“Whatever it is, we will take the issue of human rights and our sovereignty into consideration,” he added.

Kitingan said the state wants to start the process as soon as possible and has looked into setting up the machinery.

During the townhall session today, Kitingan was on the panel along with representatives from the state Immigration Department, police, the International Affairs and Research Office of the Chief Minister’s Department, the National Security Council and the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam), among others.

Kitingan, who is head of the state’s special committee to solve the problem, said that the report has been drafted and will be presented to the state Cabinet soon.

He is overseeing the report after input is collected from enforcement authorities, political leaders, related groups, and community leaders on how to best address the issue of undocumented foreigners in the state.