By Lim Kit Siang, MP for Gelang Patah

Yesterday, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak cited Brazil’s ignominous 1-7 defeat to Germany in the World Cup semi-finals as the pitfalls awaiting Malaysia if there is an absence of leadership.

Unfortunately, Najib is one of the heads of government in the world who has a lot to learn from Brazil’s massacre by Germany, for in the past year, Najib has shown a singular lack of leadership as the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

For instance, what leadership is Najib showing when he refuses to make public the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Illegal Immigrants (RCIII) in Sabah although it has been presented to Putrajaya for close to two months after decades of foot-dragging on the issue?

In fact, Najib will lose all credibility as leader and Prime Minister, particularly in Sabah, if he continues to lock up the Report of the RCIII in the vaults in Putrajaya, even though he is the first Prime Minister to accede to the demands of the Sabahans for a royal commission of inquiry on the issue.

This is because Najib’s procrastination and refusal to make public the RCI report will confirm the worst fears of Sabahans that the establishment of the RCIII in 2012 was not any genuine or bona fide effort by the Najib Federal Government to finally resolve the decades-long problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah but a classic but unconscionable electioneering manoeuvre to lull Sabahans into the belief that the Barisan Nasional Federal Government was finally going to take firm and drastic action to end the Sabah illegal immigrant problem and to get their votes in the 13th General Election in May last year.

But once the 13th general elections are over, and the Najib premiership firmly ensconced in Putrajaya even though on a minority vote, the decades-old problem of the illegal immigrant problems in Sabah which had reduced the genuine sons and daughters of Sabah into foreigners and strangers in their own land – “the Land Below the Wind” – are also banished from the consciousness of the Federal Government in Putrajaya.

How else to explain the extraordinary episode of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Illegal Immigrants in Sabah presenting its report to the Yang di Pertuan Agong on May 14 but the Federal Government still refusing to make public and its recommendations after close to two months?

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Illegal Immigrants into Sabah has established two records in the nation’s history – taking the longest time of close to three months to present its report to the Federal Government after completion of the report, and again taking the longest time of close to two months with the Federal Government still refusing to make public the report.

This is why Najib’s recent announcement of the restructuring of the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) does not inspire much public confidence that the government is serious in giving top priority to ensure security in Eastern Sabah as the Federal Government has not shown any will or leadership to stamp out the root problem of the decades-long illegal immigrants in Sabah – which is the root cause of the security and law -and-order crisis in Sabah.

The first thing Najib should do to demonstrate leadership as well as to regain confidence of Sabahans is to immediately make public the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry of Illegal Immigrants in Sabah together with a full Federal Government statement of its response to the RCIII report.