Dr M & the Sabah RCI: 'Mother of all gambles' that Najib has already LOST

As the saying goes, you can fool some of the people some of the time but not all the people all the time. And this is evident in the much-panned 8-point Royal Commission of Inquiry into the illegal immigrants issue in Sabah unveiled by Prime Minister Najib Razak on Saturday.

Not only has Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim slammed the RCI as being another political "gimmick", he has accused Najib of deliberately designing the RCI's scope so as to protect the culprits behind the citizenship-for-votes scam at the heart of the issue. This scam has been blamed for many of the problems prevalent in Sabah including overcrowding, rising crime, violence, poverty and social tensions between the locals and the illegals.

“These are major criminal acts, particularly when it involves corruption and cheating and falsifying documents. These are serious flaws, but of course, these are not part of the RCI’s terms of reference,” Anwar told reporters after a huge rally in Kota Marudu on Sunday.

Najib had empowered a 5-member panel to probe if foreigners in the state were unlawfully awarded Malaysian ICs or citizenships and included in the electoral roll. But the panel’s terms, as Anwar and other Pakatan leaders including DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang have pointed out, do not include an investigation to identify those involved in handing out citizenships unlawfully.

“Yes, it seems Dr Mahathir is clearly nervous about the RCI,” said Anwar, referring former premier Mahathir Mohamad.

“But they must have given their assurance that they will not pick at who is at fault, who are the people taking money or falsifying documents and why. So that means the entire RCI is just flawed.”

Dissatisfied Sabah leaders continue to leave BN

In a bid to counter the Opposition's arguments and to defuse Anwar's growing clout in East Malaysia, the Umno-controlled mainstream media has tried to drag him into the illegals fray, arguing that he was Mahathir's deputy during the 1980s and the one responsible for establishing Umno in Sabah.

But as Anwar's aides pointed out, setting up Umno in Sabah and formulating a "treasonous" scheme to grant citizenship to illegals so that they would vote for BN and ensure it stay in power are 2 different issues. Anwar himself has denied any knowledge or involvement in the Project IC or as many call it Project M (for Mahathir), saying that he was "kept out of the loop" in this matter.

Indeed, the counter-propaganda and Najib's RCI have failed to discourage fed-up Sabah leaders from leaving the Barisan Nasional fold. Sunday's rally was to announce the crossing over of another senior BN leader Senator Maijol Mahap over to Anwar's side of the political divide.

Maijol, a former Upko vice president, is the 3rd senior Sabah BN leader to switch allegiance and the exodus is expected to intensify after the Hari Raya celebrations.

While Maijol has not announced joining any particular Pakatan Rakyat party, he joins Tuaran MP Wilfrid Bumburing and Beaufort MP Lajim Ukin as members of a newly set-up movement to fight for change in their impoverished state. This movement is aligned to the Pakatan, which is the federal opposition and is tipped to have a better than even chance of wresting the federal government from Najib's BN at the next election.

"On whether we expect more crossovers, my answer, of course, is yes," said Anwar.

Sabahans know Project M was Mahathir's baby, not Anwar's

Even Maijol said as much during the rally, that Sabahans can forgive Anwar for bringing Umno into Sabah but not Mahathir and other henchmen for allowing the illegals to trample over the rights of the locals.

Reflecting the view of many Sabahaans, Maijol credited Anwar for bringing political change to Malaysia. He said that while during the 2008 general election, the wind of change had bypassed Sabah, it would not do so in the next general election widely expected to be held within the next few months.

"To me, all this happened and has continued to occur because of one factor and that factor is Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. He has created a new spirit for change in Malaysia and these changes will lead to a new political system for the country - a two-party system and I support this," Maijol told the rally.

Courting disaster

Najib courts disaster if he doesn’t mean what he says and is not saying what he means as far as the RCI goes because the Sabahans are dead serious over this issue. He will be dismissed for what he has so far turned out to be i.e. a fulltime professional bullshitter, for want of a better term. The state will turn in frustration to the Opposition and the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

Sabahans will suspect the worst if the RCI goes through the sham of a Public Inquiry.

There’s no need for over-emphasis on a Public Inquiry since nothing can come out of it except piecemeal solutions which will simply increase the political frustration level in Sabah.

Instead, what’s needed is for the Home Minister to take the cue from the Prime Minister and direct the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN) and Election Commission (EC) in Sabah and Putrajaya to allow the RCI to access their respective data banks.

Too many things can go wrong in ‘blood-thirsty’ Sabah

Too many things can go wrong in Sabah especially when the people in the state are baying for blood.

For example, it will come as “the mother of all shocks” if the Federal Government claims via the RCI that most of the foreigners given out “citizenships” in Sabah are in fact stateless people and therefore “there’s no problem” This would be politically unacceptable. No foreigner in Sabah can be given citizenship without the prior recommendation of the state government as the initiating party on a case-by-case basis. If the federal Government by-passes the state government, the people affected would not be considered Sabahans but Peninsular Malaysians subject to the Immigration Act unless they acquire permanent residence which would be politically impossible to grant. The lack of permanent residence status however would not prevent such people from voting in the state.

Forensic ICT experts will be needed to help the RCI to determine and weed out all JPN MyKads which are a nullity in law from the very beginning. The RCI’s 8-Point Terms of Reference may be vague on such help.

The 1^st Generation of the MyKads held by those ineligible to hold them is those which don’t carry any details on the parents of the holders but yet have been issued the document under the category of operation of law which doesn’t require the actual physical possession of a citizenship certificate. The application for such MyKads would have been facilitated by a false Statutory Declaration (SD) giving Sabah as the place of birth. The SD would have been followed by a late registration of birth certificate to be used to apply for the MyKad.

One problem is that many holders of such documents may have moved to Peninsular Malaysia, even back to their home countries or passed away.

In that case, the passage of time would have worked in favour of the JPN to cover its tracks. However, the infamous cases of Salman Majid and Majid Kani in Court – Google it – are something that the JPN cannot explain to the RCI. Salman’s lawyer, Karpal Singh, and Majid’s lawyer, P. J. Perira, can be subpoened by the RCI.

The constant change of ICs in Malaysia from Blue to Bunga Raya to MyKad and the latest smart MyKad has played further havoc with the date base and has reportedly allowed the JPN to conceal its tracks from yesteryears.

Secret Unit in Putrajaya: Lost cause for Sabahans especially Orang Asal

Still, the information on the 1^st Generation of illegal MyKad holders should be available on the JPN database unless it had deleted such information citing the passing on of the holders or their return to their home countries or leaving the state.

The children and grandchildren of the 1^st Generation of MyKad holders cannot be exposed as ineligible and weeded out unless the information on the latter (1^st Generation) is available. The data base on the 2^nd Generation of ineligible MyKad holders is likely to show that everything was above board, indicating parents’ details.

From then on, the cause is lost for the people of Sabah especially the Orang Asal.

In the absence of the required data at JPN, the Immigration Department may be able to provide the back-up date to piece together the picture on the 1^st Generation of ineligible MyKad holders.

Much of the problem, according to the grapevine, is in Putrajaya where a secret unit under the direction of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad stepped up the issuance of Malaysian personal documents to illegal immigrants in Sabah in contravention of the Federal Constitution. The suspicion is that the secret unit was initiated during the administrations of Mahathir’s predecessors but it’s known whether the problem goes back as far as 1963.

Widespread suspicion that electoral rolls have been tainted

Equally worrying for Sabahans is the suspicion that details from such documentation entered the electoral rolls in the state to tip the odds against the Orang Asal in particular and keep Chinese seats at a bare minimum.

Further compounding the problem of MyKads which are a nullity in law from the very beginning is that its holders apparently, as stated, had the tendency to keep moving to Peninsular Malaysia or return home. The result, according to the grapevine, was that the secret unit was forced to continue its operations and even step it up from time to time – operating even from jungle hideouts -- to ensure that replacement voters entered the electoral rolls.

It was the JPN which, among others, refused to co-operate with the Federal Cabinet Committee on MyKads headed by Bernard Giluk Dompok during Mahathir’s premiership. It was rumoured then that the JPN and other departments were acting on Mahathir’s directive. Dompok promptly resigned his chairmanship when he discovered Mahathir’s double game.

Najib’s RCI, which Mahathir has delayed for so long while he fought a rearguard action tooth-and-nail to kill the idea, has brought the MyKad problem in Sabah full circle to where Dompok left off with very little accomplishment. If Najib has ignored Mahathir’s objections, it’s because he’s fighting for his political life in Sabah, an electoral Fixed Deposit state for him along with Sarawak. If Sabahans unite, they can beat the illegal immigrants allegedly on the electoral rolls.

Mahathir’s statement a red herring designed to mislead RCI

Mahathir’s recent statement that illegal immigrants in Sabah who have stayed a very long time in the state and can speak Bahasa Malaysia are entitled to citizenship may be a red herring.

It’s not possible to issue citizenship certificates – naturalization for example – to illegal immigrants. If the illegals re-entered the state legally, it would be a different matter.

Again, they would not be able to qualify for citizenship by naturalization as a matter of right.

They would need to hold an Entry Permit from the Immigration Department, work permits, and run the gauntlet of clearance by the Special Branch, police clearance by their home countries, temporary residence MyKads, permanent resident MyKads, apply for naturalization, pass the Bahasa Malaysia test, collect their citizenship by naturalization certificate and produce this to obtain a MyKad issued to citizens.

Citizens by registration are the children of naturalized citizens born in Malaysia but they too, like their parents, would have to apply for a citizenship certificate, failing which they would considered citizens of the home countries of their parents and issued a permanent resident MyKad.

The EC, it’s said, has two kinds of voters on its electoral rolls i.e. the first whose MyKads, whether the holder is eligible to hold or ineligible, are listed in the JPN databank; and the second with MyKads which don’t exist in the JPN databank. The EC, the last time that it issued a statement on MyKads, admitted that it was not online with the JPN and was not in a position to check whether the MyKads of those on its electoral rolls are in the JPN databank.

Sabahans will bay for blood if the RCI turns out to be another dud

The EC doesn’t even remove the deceased on its electoral rolls unless a death certificate is presented to it. In the past, it had been alleged that the MyKads of the dead were being used to vote by phantom voters hired for the job from among illegal immigrants.

Uncollected MyKads, if not destroyed, can similarly be used by phantoms to vote.

The RCI can in fact begin its work by putting the cart-before-the-horse i.e. ensure that the EC is online to JPN to do a verification exercise of its electoral rolls.

It can also begin its work by persuading the Federal Government to offer a general amnesty to those holding MyKads to which they are not eligible under the Federal Constitution and those complicit in the commission of acts of treason.

If Sabahans get what they expect from the RCI i.e. leaner, meaner electoral rolls, among others, Najib can expect to win the state at the forthcoming 13^th General Election which has to be held by April/May next year. But no one is holding their breath.

Needless to say, the GE has to be delayed until the work of the RCI has been completed in six months and subsequently translated into action and the electoral rolls cleaned up. But will it?

The fact is most Malaysians expect Najib to call for GE-13 before the conclusion of the RCI and the shit hits the fan. Irate Sabahans will surely bay for blood at having been made fools of yet again by the BN federal government.

Malaysia Chronicle