SABAH RCI WAS NOT THE ANSWER |
By : DR. CHONG ENG LEONG as published HERE
EVER SINCE Malaysia was formed, security and sovereignty
of Sabah within Malaysia was always in our mind. KL of course knew that this was
the prime concern of Bornean States of Sabah and Sarawak when formation of
Malaysia was agreed upon.
Najib himself as Defence
Minister in 2000 stated that PTI problem in Sabah was serious. He repeated
saying this in 2005 and 2006 as Deputy PM. One senior Minister even said that
the situation was critical.
However, numerous Police Reports lodged but only token
probing, Court Judgments, ACA Report, Suhakam Reports, countless yearly
electoral objections between 1997 and 2001by PBS – all these come to nothing. KL
even ordered NRD to stop entertaining proceedings of Parliamentary Select
Committee (PSC) on Integrity of 2006.
(Our main speaker today, Mutalib M.D, would certainly
touch on this – he and Jabar Khan did testify in the proceedings of this
PSC.)
KL
denied any wrongdoing, denied extra-ordinary population increase in Sabah since
1970 but gave ridiculous and insulting reasons for the increase by Nazri and
others. Nazri added some more ridiculous reasons few days ago like “Malaysians
from Peninsula and Sarawak came to Sabah because of economic mobilisation” –
what does this mean, after all Sabah is the poorest State?
Nazri even said that opposition accused BN Govt of giving
citizenship to foreigners for votes; but Salman Majid, a foreigner, testified
this in a High Court case in KL few years ago: foreigner migrants who were given
blue IC and citizenship were to promise to vote BN in general
elections.
Nazri had stated many times in Parliament that illegal
immigrants in Sabah would be granted IMM13 or refugee status if they were from
Philippines and that there was BN govt’s future plan for them like granting PR
status and may be citizenship.
KL
denied there was Project IC for foreign migrants, denied existence of phantom
voters in Sabah rolls in spite of PBS twice (in 1997 and 2001) handed lists of
around 70,000 non-qualified names on the rolls to the Election Commission, not
to mention the Judgment of 1999 Likas election petition.
And KL refused to set up the RCI ever since 1996 when first asked for by PBS. Last year, Home Minister Hishammuddin denied there was Project IC and that the Sabah RCI was not the answer.
Yet
he said last week that he had ordered his ministry’s agencies to fully cooperate
with the RCI when called to help investigation by the Commission. Does this mean
there were readymade answers for the agencies to reply to questions by the
RCI?
It
took Bersih 2.0 in 2011 to force BN to set up the PSC on electoral reform. Sabah
participants except one in this PSC demanded for a Sabah RCI on the illegal
immigrants, Project IC and non-qualified voters in the electoral rolls. Federal
Cabinet agreed on 8 Feb 2012, but PM only announced it on 1 June after Bersih
3.0 and Sabah PKR’s Tuntut dan Tubuh RCI movement.
The TOR was not ready until 11 August and it took them another 40 days to get the appointment letters ready for the Commissioners. Today in October we just heard that there was the first meeting of this RCI Commissioners last week. The six months’ period granted for the completion of their prescribed work falls in next April in which month the current Parliament must be dissolved for PRU13 within 60 days. This tells us much about BN’s sincerity or lack of it.
The
first three Terms of the TOR ask the Commissioners to investigate the number of
foreign migrants who have been given blue IC or citizenship, if these were given
legally and if they are registered in the electoral rolls. Just investigate but
no power to recommend any action, no power to pin-point persons responsible.
When given the blue IC or citizenship through falsified
Sijil Akuan by stating that the applicant was born in Sabah when in fact not is
surely not legal. The BN Government knew about this illegality but then why
asking the RCI to see if it was legal? Why nothing in the TOR to investigate the
person or persons who master-minded this treacherous and treasonous
action?
Why
named Project Mahathir? ISA detainee, Hassnar Ibrahim detailed the modus
operandi of issuance of ICs to foreign migrants during the trial of the Likas
election petition 1999 – that was Mahathir’s instruction. That was happening in
the 80’s, about 400,000 blue ICs issued to foreigners. (Mutalib was also another
key witness at this trial and surely he would touch on this as
well.)
There was another big wave of issuance of blue IC and
citizenship in the 90’s. Another ISA detainee (Jabar Khan) testified in the
proceedings of the PSC on Integrity, (like our Mutalib did). Jabar was the
Secretary of the UMNO Task Force, formed in 1991 when UMNO set foot in Sabah.
The
Director of this Task Force was current Sabah CM and its Deputy was a current
DCM. The job of this Task Force was to recruit foreigners and have them issued
with ICs and registered them as UMNO members and in Sabah electoral rolls,
targeting 30 out of the 48 state seats. UMNO wanted to kill off PBS in the
coming elections then. This was testified by Jabar.
Tun
Mahathir was challenged but kept silent for years but last July he admitted
having granted foreign migrants citizenship, saying that they were qualified
because they could speak Malay – if qualified, why was there the need to falsify
the Sijil Akuan to say born in Sabah?
This third Term is to find out if these Project citizens
were registered in the electoral rolls but does not have to find out how many of
them registered. As mentioned earlier, PBS did submit lists of around 70,000
phantom voters twice (1997 and 2001) to EC. Actually there are at least 200,000
such phantom voters in the current Sabah rolls of around 950,000 voters – this
Forum does not have time to go to detail of this.
Terms four and five touch on standard operating procedure
(SOP), methods and regulations on giving blue IC or citizenship to foreign
migrants. The RCI is tasked to find out if these were done properly and devoid
of any irregularity from the legal aspect. And to compare these to the
international standards and norms with the view to further strengthen them.
The
BN government must be of the opinion that Commissioners are yes-man – NRD and
Immigration Dept were instructed to give IC or citizenship against our law and
Constitution, yet asking the RCI to see if the procedure etc were devoid of any
irregularity.
International standards and norms? It was done illegally
to start with – how then to compare it to international standards and norms?
Giving IC or citizenship based on religion and the promise to vote for the
incumbent government are certainly not in line with any international standard.
The
SOP etc are sound and if strictly followed there won’t be any irregularity. The
powers that be bent the laws by ordering the agencies to give IC and citizenship
to foreign migrants based on falsified Sijil Akuan.
Term six is to investigate the cause for the population
increase in Sabah according to four categories and then to study the effect of
those who are registered in the electoral rolls. The four categories
are:
1. People of Sabah
residing in Sabah, including those who have been issued with ICs and citizenship
through late birth registration certificate.
BN
government categorised these foreign migrants who have been issued IC and
citizenship as “people of Sabah who have been issued with ICs and citizenship
through late birth registration certificate”.
This is to legitimise the issuance of the IC or
citizenship – through the late birth registration certificate. Again and again
the BN government is trying to fool us Sabahans or they believe that the
Commissioners are ignorant. Foreign migrants means just that – foreign born. How
to have late birth registration in Sabah if foreign born? At the back of the
Blue ICs was stated that particulars of the holders were from Sijil Akuan, not
from birth certificate.
These are the Project Mahathir citizens – in 2010 they
were 737,000 of them in Sabah, against 1.617 million genuine Malaysian
citizens.
2. Foreign workers
(including their dependents).
In
2010 there were 955,000 foreigners registered in Sabah (Labuan included) –
750,000 were workers with permits and their dependents?
3. Illegal
immigrants (including their dependents) – the paperless.
CM
Dept said that around 120,000 of the 955,000 were paperless, including
dependents? If known paperless when doing the census exercise, why was there not
any action taken?
It
is estimated that there are one to two million paperless foreigners lurching and
reeling around in Sabah at the moment – no one knows the exact number of
them.
4. Refugees or IMM13
holders.
CM
Dept said that around 84,000 of the 955,000 were refugees. There were 57,000 in
early 70’s and 40 years later there should be 300,000 of them – but majority of
them are in possession of PR status granted unilaterally by KL side or Project
Mahathir citizenship.
This means that there were more than three million foreign migrants in Sabah in 2010, including the Project Mahathir citizens. And only 1.617 million were genuine Malaysians. Where is the promise to safeguard Sabah’s security and sovereignty within Malaysia? Janji ditepati?
The
effect of those who are registered in the electoral rolls: In 1999, Langkom and
Sook state seats (KDM majority) were replaced by two seats in Tawau Residency
where Project Mahathir citizens were in large number. In 2004 when 12 new state
seats were created, eight were in areas with large number of these Project
Mahathir citizens. There goes our sovereignty.
There were eight demands asked for by Bersih 3.0 for the
whole country, plus the RCI on the crisis of foreigners’ issues in Sabah – the
outcome of this RCI would be either a source of pride to the future generations
or a focus of contempt.
Term seven is to investigate the social implication
arising from the issuance of blue IC or citizenship to foreign migrants on Sabah
community.
The
greatest sin of the BN government is to categorise the foreign migrants who were
given blue IC and citizenship, given illegally, as Sabah Bumiputra. This erodes
the fundamental rights of the indigenous people of Sabah, severely disturb the
harmonious demography and silently marginalise them into oblivion. It is sad to
say that the future role of the indigenous people is for decoration only during
festive occasions. The statistics on the racial breakdown of Sabah population
since 1970 as shown below speaks volume.
The
racial breakdown in Sabah (Labuan included) according to the Dept of Statistics
Malaysia, Sabah:
The
BN government knew about this statistics and they tried to downplay the
glaringly staggering figure of “Malay” population in Sabah that they issued
statistics allegedly from Malaysia Population Census that Malay population in
Sabah in 2010 was only 178,000, (the balance of 220,000 was added to the
category of Bumiputra Lain). BN is trying to fool us Sabahans for the umpteen
times.
Term eight is to find out the number of stateless
foreigners given blue IC or citizenship.
Recommendations
1. Call not just
government agencies like NRD, Police, Immigration Dept – but also ex-ISA
detainees involved in this IC scam (like Hassnar Ibrahim, Jabar Khan, Yakup
Damsar), SUHAKAM, NGOs who are in the knows,
and individuals like Mutalib. Heads of present and past EPF and SOCSO
knew about phantom contributors – call them to testify as well. And please
accept volunteers who want to come forward to testify;
2. Not just
investigate but also (i) probe into the people responsible and have the power to
recommend appropriate actions to be taken on them and (ii) to recommend
reviewing citizenship of these Project Mahathir citizens and follow-up
actions;
3. Deport all paperless foreigners;
4. To investigate
the number of foreign migrants granted PR status in Sabah and appropriate
recommendations like invoking the IGC Reports on immigration and follow-up
actions;
5. To recommend to
stop issuing IMM13 or refugee status to Filipino, review their status and deal
with them appropriately;
6. Foreign workers
with permit must not be accompanied by dependents;
7. Corruptions
within the agencies concerned to be dealt with seriously – install patriotism to
our people esp these agencies’ personnel;
8. For those
foreigners who could not be deported, consider distribute them proportionately
to rest of Malaysia or to third countries;
9. Investigate the
number of these foreign migrants registered in the electoral rolls with the view
to expunge them before the next elections.
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