Ghosts of Christmas past

There are several controversial issues raised by the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the Sabah illegal immigrants. On first sight, the allegations raised under oath seemed very serious and damaging. Especially from the over-tones pro-Opposition media The Malaysian Insider reported the stories in the RCI today.

The first one is about a claim that former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Allahyarham Tan Sri Megat Junid Megat Ayub instructed NRD man to allow immigrants to vote.

Ex-NRD man says ordered by Megat Junid to let immigrants vote

UPDATED @ 06:21:55 PM 16-01-2013

By Boo Su-Lyn

January 16, 2013

KOTA KINABALU, Jan 16 — A former National Registration Department (NRD) official accused the late Tan Sri Megat Junid Megat Ayub of ordering him to issue NRD receipts enabling illegal immigrants in Sabah to vote in the 1994 state election.

Former Sabah NRD director Ramli Kamarudin said Megat Junid, then the deputy home affairs minister, had told him that the NRD receipts were to match the names and IC numbers of registered voters.

“We gave them (immigrants) RM20,” Ramli told the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants here today.

“We teach them how to vote. We gather them in a house. We send them by bus to the polling stations. Then we send them back and we collect the receipts. The receipts are just for voting. We did not give them identity cards,” he added.

Ramli said that about 200 NRD receipts were issued in five or six state constituencies each in Sabah that were considered “black spots that were difficult for the government to win.”

“One area maybe 400,” he said.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister who was in power from 1981 to 2003, has been accused of spearheading the so-called “Project IC”, in which citizenships were allegedly given to immigrants in exchange for their votes.

But former Sabah Chief Minister Tan Sri Harris Salleh, who administered the state from 1976 to 1985, denied yesterday the existence of “Project IC”.

The 1994 state election saw Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) winning just 25 out of 48 state assembly seats.

But several PBS MPs defected to Barisan Nasional (BN) shortly after, causing the collapse of the PBS government.

Ramli said today that he was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) from 1995 to 1997.

He also denied receiving bribes.

“This was a direct order from the deputy home affairs minister himself, even though I admit that it was illegal,” said Ramli.

He added that the directive was given at a meeting with Megat Junid, Umno’s Datuk Seri Osu Sukam (who later became the Sabah chief minister in 1999) and an NRD registration officer called Asli Sidup, at Hyatt Hotel here two weeks before the 1994 state election.

“The receipts were strictly for voting. After that, we would collect the receipts and destroy them,” said Ramli.

Asli testified later that 200 NRD receipts were used in the Kawang state constituency in the 1994 state election, which Osu won by a mere 64 votes.

The inquiry before RCI chairman Tan Sri Steve Shim Lip Kiong resumes tomorrow.

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Another was about Sabah NRD to give ICs.

EC ordered NRD to give ICs, change immigrants, RCI told

Former Sabah NRD deputy director Mohd Nasir Sugip, who worked in Sabah NRD from 1992 to 1994, told the RCI today that the then-Sabah EC director, Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Yusof, had ordered Sabah NRD to change the names of Indonesian and Filipino immigrants to increase the number of Muslim voters in Sabah.

Wan Ahmad’s full name was not given.

“Ops Durian Buruk (Spoilt Durian) is an operation that involves changing and creating new names from the names given by SPR,” said Nasir at the RCI here today, referring to the EC by its Malay acronym.

“It means that the names were changed, IC numbers were changed, date of birth was changed… and their pictures,” he added.

Nasir said he was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) from 1995 to 1998 for giving identity cards to unqualified immigrants.

Nasir added that 800 names had been handed to the Sugut state and the Kinabatangan parliamentary constituencies.

“As far as I remember, the results of the elections favoured Barisan Nasional (BN), YB Datuk Surady Kayong,” he said.

BN candidate Surady had defeated Parti Bersatu Sabah’s (PBS) Jublee KK Zen in Sugut during the 1994 state election with a razor-sharp margin of 79 votes.

Surady is currently the assistant minister of local government and housing in Sabah.

But Nasir denied receiving bribes for his role in the exercise.

“I just followed instructions… and I signed a pledge with my director,” he said.

Asked if there was a pact between the EC and the NRD to increase the number of voters in Sabah, he said: “There was some co-operation and collaboration between [the NRD] and [EC] in this kind of exercise.”

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister who was in power from 1981 to 2003, has been accused of spearheading the so-called “Project IC”, in which citizenships were allegedly given to immigrants for their votes.

But former Sabah Chief Minister Tan Sri Harris Salleh, who administered the state from 1976 to 1985, denied yesterday the existence of “Project IC”.

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These testimonies, even though given under oath, should be doubted. It is because the personalities who gave these testimonies themselves are ‘doubtful’, if not should be regarded as ‘undesirables’.

All these testimonies where presented without any shred of evidence, nor documents to substantiate their claims. And to drag former Deputy Home Minister who had passed on and his side of story or opportunity to clear his name is really low.

Never the less, these characters themselves are testimony of the nature of the exercise. The fact is that tese men were employees of NRD Sabah who were arrested under the Internal Security Act for the ‘selling of ICs to immigrants’.

It was never government exercise, be it Sabah State Government or Federal Government, to give away ICs to immigrants. They acted as part of a syndicate to do so. And all, for profiteering. It was an act of treachery, especially there were government employees and sworn to secrecy. Instead, they did the undespicable act of giving away identification cards to immigrants and fiddle with the records.

They are coming forward in the RCI to testify, because they were very sore that their scam was uncovered and stopped, and they had to spend time under ISA detention for ‘jeopardising national security’.

In 2005, then Prime Minister PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said since 1980, 34 NRD employees were arrested under ISA. Mostly, for acts of selling away and falsifying identification papers of foreigners and illegal immigrants. On 13 February 2005, NST reported that Police seized a number of MyKads from foreigners and detained several NRD officers.

KUALA LUMPUR, Fri. – Police seized more than 150 identity cards, including the high-security MyKad, from foreigners and arrested an undisclosed number of Home Ministry officials recently.

This affirms suspicions that unscrupulous civil servants were in cahoots with human trafficking syndicates.

What is more interesting is that Nasir Sungip, is the brother of  Opposition Leader Saari Sungip. He is thought to be using this opportunity to demonize the Federal Government and then State Government, moreover for the advantage of his brother’s political allegiance. The Opposition’s strategy of ‘Politics of Hatred’ by demonizing the authorities to make the Federal Government look bad and sinister, is in play here in this inquiry.

For the record, Nasir said he was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) from 1995 to 1998 for giving identity cards to unqualified immigrants.

PKR Sabah man Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan who was an ISA detainee said this, “When I was under ISA detention, I met several detainees involved in the project, (as scapegoats) some of whom were National Registration Department and Immigration officers, that no less than one million ICs were issued to foreigners at that material time (1991)”.

The RCI, which was set up by Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak met since Monday, comprises former Universiti Malaysia Sabah Vice Chancellor Datuk Dr Kamaruzaman Ampon, former Sabah Attorney General Tan Sri Herman Luping, former Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Henry Chin and former State Secretary Datuk KY Mustafa where else it is chaired by  former High Court judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Steve Shim.

Term of reference of the RCI:

1. To investigate the number of foreigners in Sabah given blue Malaysian ICs or citizenship’s;

2. To investigate if the award of such ICs or citizenships were according to the law;

3. To investigate if those given blue ICs, temporary identification receipts or citizenship through unlawful means have been registered in Sabah’s electoral roll;

4. To investigate if the authorities have taken any action or made improvements to standard operating procedures (SOPs), methods and regulations to prevent any irregularities in accordance with the law;

5. To conduct a deeper probe into the SOPs, methods and regulations on the award of blue ICs or citizenship’s to foreigners in Sabah by taking into consideration international norms and standards that are applicable to Malaysia, and to recommend amendments or changes to improve current practices;

6. To investigate the reasons behind Sabah’s population growth according to the following categories:

a) Sabah citizens residing in the state, including those given blue ICs or citizenship’s through birth certificates (late registration);

b) foreign workers (including family members);

c) illegal immigrants (including family members); and

d) fugitives

and to study their impact on the number of those registered in the electoral roll;

7. To investigate the social implications on the Sabah community following the award of blue ICs or citizenship’s to foreigners in the state; and

8) To investigate the number of “stateless” foreigners in Sabah given blue ICs or citizenship.

Why is the RCI allowing these ‘doubtful’, if not ‘undesirable’ personalities who should be regarded as ‘Traitors’ for the role to sell away ICs is baffling.

Then again, what were presented today at the RCI is a demonstration of ‘Ghosts of Christmas Past’. These men were demons of national security. Since they have reached the lowest ebb, they have nothing to lose by making other people look like evil.