Some days into its hearing, the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) in Sabah on the extraordinary population explosion in this “Nation in Malaysia”, has opened a Pandora’s Box. But will there be hope left as in the mythical Pandora’s Box when it was finally shut, or will all hell break loose? In 2005, it was estimated that Sabah had a population of 3.2 million, of which only 1.5 million were locals.
The most disturbing feature of the revelations at the RCI is whether the Sabah governments since 1994 have been legitimate.
No election is free of irregularities and even fraud. The courts have observed this time and again, not only in this country but elsewhere around the world, and have resisted the temptation to open the floodgates. They know where to draw the line.
The principle well-established in law as a litmus test is whether electoral fraud was perpetuated to an extent which affected the outcome. In that case, the election has to be ruled null and void or the so-called victor stripped of the results and the seat handed to his rival or nearest rival.
Many people still remember Judge Harun Hashim declaring Umno unlawful in the wake of the party’s disputed 1987 presidential elections which Mahathir Mohamad won by 43 votes in the face of a stiff challenge by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. The court discovered that 30 illegal branches had voted for Mahathir.
Had the illegal branches voted for Razaleigh, it would not have been possible for the court to declare Umno unlawful since the ineligible votes did not deny Mahathir victory.
The judge could have discounted the illegal votes and handed the presidency to Razaleigh (left). But for reasons best known to him, he handed Mahathir victory by the backdoor.
The man went on to set up Umno Baru which disallowed the entry of Razaleigh and his supporters, hijacked the old Umno’s MPs, hijacked the chairpersonship of the Barisan Nasional (BN) after Umno Baru was admitted as a member by the coalition, and hijacked the government.
Razaleigh was the prime minister Malaysia never had. Mahathir became the prime minister who never was.
In Sabah, it appears that MyKads were issued to illegal immigrants for the purpose of voting in the name of registered voters who were not known to vote. That’s one side of the picture emerging at the ongoing RCI hearing.
Early bird catches the worm
It’s not often that things went smoothly. Every election, the local media carry complaints from voters who allege that they were not allowed to vote on the grounds that they had already voted first thing in the morning.
The RCI completes the puzzle. Someone, it seems, had voted on behalf of the aggrieved voters.
If illegal immigrants voted on behalf of citizens registered in the electoral rolls, they could be pulling off the same scam on behalf of citizens who had not registered as voters. There’s nothing to prevent an illegal registering as a voter with a MyKad under the name of an unregistered voter.
Kota Kinabalu Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) chief Christina Liew had time and again raised the issue of the deceased on the electoral rolls, quite a number more than 100 years old, voting in every election, but to no avail. The Election Commission (EC) brazenly declared the Malaysian electoral rolls as the cleanest in the world without a shred of evidence.
The logistics show that the electoral scam could easily be perpetuated in seats with a tiny number of registered voters and seats which could go either way.
The allegedly rampant issuance of MyKads in Sabah could not be all about voting.
The RCI heard that over 80,000 refugees from the Philippines were issued MyKads and another 36,000 are on the waiting list. This is a strange development considering that Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees and does not recognise refugees but terms them as economic migrants. In that case, what’s the legal basis on which the refugees were recognised as Malaysians?
Did the refugees run the gauntlet of securing entry permits with valid travel documents, before graduating to temporary resident status, permanent resident status and naturalisation?
They could not have become citizens under operation of law or registration. It’s not possible to secure entry permits without valid travel papers. The refugees, having fled the Philippines with just the shirts on their backs, could not have been carrying valid travel papers which, in any case, cost an arm and a leg back home.
Mahathir’s belated admission that he gave MyKads to Filipino refugees has further muddied the waters. Hitherto, he had denied that there were any serious problems with the issuance of MyKads in Sabah.
Sabahans will not accept the issuance of MyKads to the refugees by the federal government. Every Sabahan knows that foreigners in their country can only obtain MyKads upon the recommendation of the state government which must also be the initiating party. Sabah, like Sarawak, cannot be lumped together in the same category as the states in the peninsula which participated in Malaysia in the collective as Malaya.
Mahathir’s take on the Filipino refugees appears to be a red herring. The dimension of the MyKad phenomenon in Sabah is far larger than the issue of refugees.
The phenomenon of ‘twice-born’
Many Indian sub-continentals too, like other illegal immigrants in Sabah, possess MyKads under the “twice-born” phenomenon.
The cases in court of Indian restaurant keeper Majid Kani and Pakistani carpet seller Salman Majid - they can be Googled - best illustrate the twice born phenomenon in Sabah.
Majid Kani was born in Tamil Nadu, India but made out a statutory declaration (SD) swearing that he was born in Papar, along the west coast of Sabah. He, along with 100 Indian sub-continentals, were issued MyKads on the strength of their SDs and subsequently obtained Malaysian passports. The figure 100 was mentioned by Majid himself in Court.
The authorities nabbed him and hauled him to court for allegedly obtaining Malaysian personal documents fraudulently. Apparently, the powers-that-be allegedly discovered that he allegedly voted for the opposition, not once but twice.
Salman in his SD claimed that he was born in Ranau, Sabah. The rest of his story appears to mirror Majid’s.
Salman was nabbed by Immigration in Sepang after they were convinced that he did not sound Malaysian enough. There were gaping holes in his story.
Salman was freed by the court after the Immigration Department and the National Registration Department declined, in a change of heart, to provide the court with the necessary proof that Salman was a Pakistani masquerading as a Malaysian. Former Sabah chief minister Harris Salleh testified in court on Salman’s behalf that “he (Salman) had always been a loyal BN supporter who voted for the ruling coalition”.
Most of the problem Indonesian
Those in the know swear that the bulk of the MyKads in the hands of illegal immigrants and other foreigners are held by Indonesians who keep a low profile in the plantations. However, it’s the Filipinos and Indian sub-continentals who hog the newspapers headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Foreigners are eligible to obtain citizenship in Malaysia but they would have to comply with the relevant provisions in the federal constitution.
If what is being said at the on-going RCI hearing in Kota Kinabalu is anything to go by, it appears that many foreigners in Sabah are in possession of MyKads which were fraudulently obtained. The examples of Majid Kani and Salman Majid refer.
Strictly speaking not all foreigners in Sabah are illegal immigrants. Still, that does not prevent Sabahans from referring to all foreigners as illegal immigrants.
Sabahans will demand that the sordid history of Putrajaya and/or their proxies, stooges and rogue elements in their Nation on MyKads be undone.
The most disturbing feature of the revelations at the RCI is whether the Sabah governments since 1994 have been legitimate.
No election is free of irregularities and even fraud. The courts have observed this time and again, not only in this country but elsewhere around the world, and have resisted the temptation to open the floodgates. They know where to draw the line.
The principle well-established in law as a litmus test is whether electoral fraud was perpetuated to an extent which affected the outcome. In that case, the election has to be ruled null and void or the so-called victor stripped of the results and the seat handed to his rival or nearest rival.
Many people still remember Judge Harun Hashim declaring Umno unlawful in the wake of the party’s disputed 1987 presidential elections which Mahathir Mohamad won by 43 votes in the face of a stiff challenge by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. The court discovered that 30 illegal branches had voted for Mahathir.
Had the illegal branches voted for Razaleigh, it would not have been possible for the court to declare Umno unlawful since the ineligible votes did not deny Mahathir victory.
The judge could have discounted the illegal votes and handed the presidency to Razaleigh (left). But for reasons best known to him, he handed Mahathir victory by the backdoor. The man went on to set up Umno Baru which disallowed the entry of Razaleigh and his supporters, hijacked the old Umno’s MPs, hijacked the chairpersonship of the Barisan Nasional (BN) after Umno Baru was admitted as a member by the coalition, and hijacked the government.
Razaleigh was the prime minister Malaysia never had. Mahathir became the prime minister who never was.
In Sabah, it appears that MyKads were issued to illegal immigrants for the purpose of voting in the name of registered voters who were not known to vote. That’s one side of the picture emerging at the ongoing RCI hearing.
Early bird catches the worm
It’s not often that things went smoothly. Every election, the local media carry complaints from voters who allege that they were not allowed to vote on the grounds that they had already voted first thing in the morning.
The RCI completes the puzzle. Someone, it seems, had voted on behalf of the aggrieved voters.
If illegal immigrants voted on behalf of citizens registered in the electoral rolls, they could be pulling off the same scam on behalf of citizens who had not registered as voters. There’s nothing to prevent an illegal registering as a voter with a MyKad under the name of an unregistered voter.Kota Kinabalu Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) chief Christina Liew had time and again raised the issue of the deceased on the electoral rolls, quite a number more than 100 years old, voting in every election, but to no avail. The Election Commission (EC) brazenly declared the Malaysian electoral rolls as the cleanest in the world without a shred of evidence.
The logistics show that the electoral scam could easily be perpetuated in seats with a tiny number of registered voters and seats which could go either way.
The allegedly rampant issuance of MyKads in Sabah could not be all about voting.
The RCI heard that over 80,000 refugees from the Philippines were issued MyKads and another 36,000 are on the waiting list. This is a strange development considering that Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees and does not recognise refugees but terms them as economic migrants. In that case, what’s the legal basis on which the refugees were recognised as Malaysians?
Did the refugees run the gauntlet of securing entry permits with valid travel documents, before graduating to temporary resident status, permanent resident status and naturalisation?
They could not have become citizens under operation of law or registration. It’s not possible to secure entry permits without valid travel papers. The refugees, having fled the Philippines with just the shirts on their backs, could not have been carrying valid travel papers which, in any case, cost an arm and a leg back home.
Mahathir’s belated admission that he gave MyKads to Filipino refugees has further muddied the waters. Hitherto, he had denied that there were any serious problems with the issuance of MyKads in Sabah.
Sabahans will not accept the issuance of MyKads to the refugees by the federal government. Every Sabahan knows that foreigners in their country can only obtain MyKads upon the recommendation of the state government which must also be the initiating party. Sabah, like Sarawak, cannot be lumped together in the same category as the states in the peninsula which participated in Malaysia in the collective as Malaya.Mahathir’s take on the Filipino refugees appears to be a red herring. The dimension of the MyKad phenomenon in Sabah is far larger than the issue of refugees.
The phenomenon of ‘twice-born’
Many Indian sub-continentals too, like other illegal immigrants in Sabah, possess MyKads under the “twice-born” phenomenon.
The cases in court of Indian restaurant keeper Majid Kani and Pakistani carpet seller Salman Majid - they can be Googled - best illustrate the twice born phenomenon in Sabah.
Majid Kani was born in Tamil Nadu, India but made out a statutory declaration (SD) swearing that he was born in Papar, along the west coast of Sabah. He, along with 100 Indian sub-continentals, were issued MyKads on the strength of their SDs and subsequently obtained Malaysian passports. The figure 100 was mentioned by Majid himself in Court.
The authorities nabbed him and hauled him to court for allegedly obtaining Malaysian personal documents fraudulently. Apparently, the powers-that-be allegedly discovered that he allegedly voted for the opposition, not once but twice.
Salman in his SD claimed that he was born in Ranau, Sabah. The rest of his story appears to mirror Majid’s.
Salman was nabbed by Immigration in Sepang after they were convinced that he did not sound Malaysian enough. There were gaping holes in his story.
Salman was freed by the court after the Immigration Department and the National Registration Department declined, in a change of heart, to provide the court with the necessary proof that Salman was a Pakistani masquerading as a Malaysian. Former Sabah chief minister Harris Salleh testified in court on Salman’s behalf that “he (Salman) had always been a loyal BN supporter who voted for the ruling coalition”.
Most of the problem Indonesian
Those in the know swear that the bulk of the MyKads in the hands of illegal immigrants and other foreigners are held by Indonesians who keep a low profile in the plantations. However, it’s the Filipinos and Indian sub-continentals who hog the newspapers headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Foreigners are eligible to obtain citizenship in Malaysia but they would have to comply with the relevant provisions in the federal constitution.
If what is being said at the on-going RCI hearing in Kota Kinabalu is anything to go by, it appears that many foreigners in Sabah are in possession of MyKads which were fraudulently obtained. The examples of Majid Kani and Salman Majid refer.
Strictly speaking not all foreigners in Sabah are illegal immigrants. Still, that does not prevent Sabahans from referring to all foreigners as illegal immigrants.
Sabahans will demand that the sordid history of Putrajaya and/or their proxies, stooges and rogue elements in their Nation on MyKads be undone.
JOE FERNANDEZ is a freelance journalist based in Sabah.
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