Move Forward and Act on the RCI Findings

Kota Kinabalu:    “There is no point in arguing about the statement issued by the Chief Secretary on the RCI Report which was obviously a misleading BN public relations exercise, but what can be done to move forward and resolve the problems identified by the RCI” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief, in a press statement on the furore created by the Chief Secretary on the RCI Report.            

The main issue at hand is not whether there is or there is no Project IC? or Is the federal government or Tun Mahathir involved or not?

We should also not be side-tracked with nonsensical statements from senior federal Ministers and traitorous statements from Sabah leaders who seem to have forgotten that they are from Sabah, be it Kota Belud, Tuaran, Kinabatangan or elsewhere.  For the information of non-believers, the RCI specifically states that Project IC probably exists.

We should also not be happy with empty and insincere promises that the Sabah government will ensure that there will be no illegal immigrants or the immigration and security authorities that there will be no illegals by 2020?

Of course, there will be no illegal immigrants even by the end of the year, not necessary by 2020 if the federal agencies continue to issue ICs and MyKads to them, as is on-going now, with an Indonesian ethnic association playing a major role in getting ICs for their kin.

“We should now focus on the RCI findings that ICs and MyKads were given illegally and illegal voters entered into the electoral rolls and finding solutions” stressed Dr. Jeffrey.

The big question that begs to be answered is “What is the federal and Sabah governments’ stand on these illegal IC and MyKad holders and illegal voters?

The governments should not play hide and seek on the RCI Report and avoid take responsibility on action to be taken to solve the problems, created by or at least condoned by them in the first place.

It is pointless to set up the Permanent Secretariat or the Working Committee and allow them to grope in the dark if the federal and Sabah governments dilly-dally and avoid making crucial decisions on these illegals.

It is irresponsible to push the illegals problems to Sabahans and the Permanent Secretariat with the Working Committee when the problems are created by the failures of the federal government with failures of the security forces in guarding the borders; the failures of the NRD in issuing ICs and MyKads without proper or fake birth certificates and without proper verification; or the Election Commission in allowing illegals to vote and illegals to be registered as illegal voters.

It is unlawful for a person to be given an IC based on a false declaration he is born again in Sabah when he is actually born in India, Pakistan, Indonesia or the Philippines.

In the USA or in the UK, if an immigrant innocently and wrongly makes a mistake in his declaration for permanent residence or citizenship, not even to the extent of lying on his place of birth, that application is automatically rejected.

Only in Malaysia, that illegal immigrant is not only given an IC and a right to vote but is also given special “Melayu/bumiputra” status higher than natives.  These new citizens were also given privileges with many even given PPRT houses or public housing and other perks all because they become Umno members and vote for the Barisan Nasional.

The solution does not lie with excuses that it will be difficult for the recalling of the illegally issued ICs as these immigrants have now children or grandchildren born in Malaysia or there is no mechanism for the issuance of a Sabah IC.

The federal and Sabah governments are the ruling governments of the day.   There is no reason why as the ruling governments they cannot create a mechanism for a Sabah IC which had been done before.   There is also no reason why a non-Sabahan Resident Identification cannot be issued to accommodate foreigners without being allowed to be registered as voters or allowed to vote when high-tech identifications with bio-metric security features are currently issued for foreign workers.