From boast to downright disgrace

The modus operandi to ensure Sabah remained Umno's "fixed deposit" bordered on "treason" at the highest level and was a state-sponsored organised crime.

KOTA KINABALU: It used to be Umno’s and the Barisan Nasional’s claim, made with some swagger, that Sabah is their “fixed deposit” state. The boast was meant to convey the message to the opposition that they were untouchable. As it turned out, it was true.

The ruling coalition had indeed stuffed the ballot boxes in the state sufficiently, but not in the usual way, to ensure Sabah would always be in their corner in their bid to hang on to reins of power. But that boastful expression is coming back to haunt them.

The first week of evidence gathering by the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the massive presence of illegal immigrants in the state emphasised this.

The narrative so far is that what started as a refugee problem morphed into an illegal immigrant problem and then became a policy to re-engineer the population of the state to reflect Muslim dominance from its native Christian majority origins at the founding of Malaysia in 1963.

From there it again changed shape and became an alleged illegal citizenship-for-votes project to prop up a shaky coalition government that has ruled Malaysia for more than 50 years and Sabah for almost two decades.

The modus operandi that was used to ensure Sabah became Umno’s “fixed deposit” state,  bordered on state-sponsored organised crime while some would put it as “treasonous” activity at the highest government levels.

Witness after witness stated as much over the last week.

Dr M: Project IC legal
Former prime minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, under whose watch the hitherto Christian state became populated by a Muslim majority, had finally come out to admit that Project IC was true but that everything was done legally.

However, former civil servants who served during his time in power, illegal immigrants and refugees seem to contradict his statement by telling the commission of the clandestine nature of the issuance of Malaysian identification papers that led to them gaining citizenship and right to vote.

Top Sabah National Registration Department (NRD) officers spoke of an operation codenamed ‘Operation Rotten Durian’ and by all accounts this operation reached into the highest offices including those of Mahathir’s trusted aides and indeed Mahathir himself.

He seems to confirm this when he said last week: “When I was prime minister, I was in power to determine the implementation of government policies.

“The government received foreigners to be citizens if (they) fulfilled certain conditions, furthermore those who are there are not one, two days but already 20 to 30 years and they speak in Bahasa Melayu, have the right to be Malaysians.

“So the problem is when there are people who are unhappy when there are some who become Malaysians although those individuals have already long resided in Malaysia, that is what causes problems.”

Speaking at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, as the stunning nature of the RCI witness statements sank in, he repeatedly stressed that this giving of citizenships to foreigners was “within the law”.

“I never deny it (citizenships) were given. What I deny is that I did something against the law, that I will deny,” he was reported as saying.

The evidence gathered so far speaks for itself and doesn’t leave the former prime minister much room to manoeuvre in the minds of Sabahans with an eye on the elections at least but these are still early days for the RCI.

Nevertheless, much of what has been revealed at the on-going RCI is not new.

Damning confirmations

Books on the subject by well-known blogger Mutalib MD and Dr Chong Eng Leong’s ‘Lest we Forget’ with painstakingly compiled evidence stated as much.

Up to now what they said remained insinuations and allegations. The first week on the RCI  public hearing must have been music to their ears.

Witnesses corroborated and added legitimacy to their claims of something rotten having taken place in the state and they are vindicated.

It is left to be seen if Umno and its leaders will still dare to boast of Sabah as their “fixed deposit” state in the coming general elections. If anything, that brag has become a slap in the face for Sabahans.