Plot to implicate Anwar in Sabah RCI, Azmin claims

The “ultimate goal” of the RCI was to tie Anwar to Sabah’s illegal immigrant problem, said Azmin. — File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 — PKR has received information of a scheme to implicate Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in the on-going royal inquiry on Sabah’s illegal immigrants issue, the party’s deputy president Azmin Ali alleged today.

He said this when asked to comment on the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI), now in its fourth day of hearing, in which former civil servants have testified on allegations involving the granting of citizenships and voting rights to immigrants.

“[A]nd I also received information (the) ultimate goal will relate to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim also.

“All the problems in this country is burdened on the de-facto leader and we also expect (this),” he said today.

Azmin also sought to pre-emptively deflect attention towards the ruling administration.

“But if we look at the testimonies today, it involves the role of the prime minister’s institutions... not the role that is carried by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim,” Azmin said at a press conference here.

Azmin later said the testimonies given before the RCI’s panel “confirmed that the institutions and agencies involved are purely under the administration of the Prime Minister’s Department.”

He then listed the Prime Minister’s Office, the Home Affairs Ministry, the National Registration Department (NRD), the Immigration Department, saying that “all these agencies were under the leadership of Dr Mahathir”.

“So Dr Mahathir must be responsible for these operations in Sabah,” he said.

Azmin was referring to former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was in power from 1981 to 2003.

The country’s longest-serving prime minister 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 on Tuesday the existence of “Project IC”.

Anwar served as the country’s deputy prime minister from 1993 until his sacking in 1998, and was also the finance minister from 1990 until his dismissal.