Liew, MP for Batu Sapi, alleged that some officials from Peninsular Malaysia posted in the Borneo state were unable to understand local dialects and posed problems when dealing with the people.

He said there was an urgent need to solve the problem because failure to communicate properly had resulted in locals not being able to gain full benefit of services they were supposed to receive.

Liew said many people had found themselves making long costly trips to make applications for the services only to return empty-handed and frustrated.

“It is already troublesome for these people to travel long distances just to make certain applications at the government agencies,” he said at a breaking-of-fast with supporters in Batu Sapi yesterday.

He said critical services should be made mobile and brought to the people instead of them being required to go to towns or cities.

In the past, Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR) president Jeffrey Kitingan had also made similar complaints about officials from the peninsula who did not understand local languages and cultures.

He had proposed that such officials be given a crash course to familiarise themselves with Sabah, its people, and local customs.

Federal officials, especially in the National Registration Department, had been blamed for instances of non-Muslims being registerd as Muslims by having ‘Bin’ and ‘Binti’ as part of their names on their birth certificates.

Such people wrongly registered as Muslims were then subjected to various types of bureaucratic difficulties to have the term “Islam” removed from their MyKad. These included being forced to go to the Syariah court.