CREDIBLE? NRD tells RCI it cancelled problematic ICs

KOTA KINABALU- The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) investigating the illegal immigrants' issue in Sabah was told yesterday that the National Registration Department (NRD) cancelled problematic Identity Cards (IC) and deleted the applicants' names from its records.

Putrajaya NRD Identity Card Division director Md Solehan Omar said the problems included information on name, address, date, place of birth, fingerprint and pictures of applicants which did not match the NRD records.

Responding to conducting officer Manoj Kurup on the issuance of problematic ICs, Md Solehan said the Sabah and Sarawak Special Committee on Identity Cards was formed in 2006 to resolve the issue of unsystematic issuance of ICs in the two states.

"This committee conducts checks and investigations on IC complaints received by the Sabah NRD before deciding if they are to be approved," he said during the eighth day of the proceedings, here, today.

Md Solehan, 58, explained that the committee would cancel the problematic IC and delete the applicant's name from its records.

However, Md Solehan, who is a member of the special committee, could not reveal the exact number of such problematic ICs which have been resolved, as the process had yet to be completed.

Questioned as to whether one IC number could be used by two or more persons in Sabah, the 51st witness said there should only be one IC number for one individual.

However, based on NRD records, an estimated 600 IC numbers belonged to two individuals or more, he added. He said the JPN1/9 receipt, which was the identification document issued to an applicant pending their proper IC, and JPN1/11 lost IC receipt could be used to vote as they were official NRD documents.

When Manoj asked about the function of the Agency Linked Up System (ALIS), Md Solehan it was a system which enabled departments such as the Election Commission (EC), Health Ministry, Public Services Commission, police and others to check the name, IC number, address and place of birth of individuals.

He also explained that the special committee could also access such information via ALIS. Sabah and Sarawak NRD also went into the interior areas of the two states to carry out birth certificate registrations, accompanied by a magistrate to certify them, he said.

The RCI then heard from the Malaysian Immigration Department assistant superintendent and special unit head, Abdul Khalid Abdul Karim, who said that up to Dec 2012, some 98,427 IMM-13 cards had been issued to Filipino refugees in Sabah and that the records were only from 2005.

He said 60,248 of those card holders were still active based on extension applications, while the rest may have not done so, had passed away or returned to their country. The IMM-13 cards were valid for a year and would be cancelled by the immigration director if the holder was convicted in a court of law.

However, he said he did not know the number of IMM-13 cards which had been cancelled upon such convictions. He said the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for issuing the IMM-13 cards by the Sabah Immigration Department was still based on the Office Directive 2/2012 dated Dec 31, 2012, which was very comprehensive compared to the procedures between 2005 and 2011.

To a question by lawyer Ansari Abdullah, who was observing the inquiry on behalf of author Dr Chong Eng Leong, regarding the SOP in the 1970s up to 1984, the witness said he had no knowledge of the matter. But he agreed with Ansari that the latest SOP was implemented after the government had announced the setting up of the RCI in June last year.

The witness also agreed with Ansari that under Section 16 and 17 of the Immigration Act, it was an offence to enter a non-gazetted area in Sabah.

Questioned as to whether anyone had been charged in court for infringing this act throughout his time in the Immigration Department since 1983, Abdul Khalid said,"No."

The proceeding, before a five-member panel headed by former Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Steve Shim Lip Kiong, continues on Feb 22.

– Bernama