RPK: Get Mahathir, Anwar to testify

The two should be subpoenaed by the Sabah RCI as they know more than what they're telling us, says Malaysia Today editor.

PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim, his deputy in the 1990s, should be made to testify in the Sabah’s Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI),

Prominent blogger and Malaysia Today editor, Raja Petra Kamarudin, said it would help in the RCI’s probe into Sabah immigrants and the Project IC as they were the decision-makers then.

“I feel that both Mahathir and Anwar must be called to testify in the RCI, as should all those others in power since the 1970s until today,” said Raja Petra, popularly referred to as RPK.

“They know more than what they are telling us. There is more than meets the eye here and finger- pointing is not the right way to go,” he said in a blog posting today.

Mahathir and Anwar accused each other of being complicit in the citizenship-for-votes scam in the 1990s which saw about 200,000 Sabah immigrants obtaining Malaysian citizenship.

Mahathir claimed that Anwar had acted without his orders, while Anwar said the task force to grant citizenship to Sabah immigrants was managed by Mahathir.

RPK believed that Project IC was “a series of episodes” which happened at different times due to different reasons.

Separate the wheat from the chaff

He said despite the typical stereotyping of Sabah immigrants, there were genuine refugees who escaped from Mindanao, Philippines, when war erupted in the region in 1970s.

“On humanitarian grounds the Bangsa Moro Muslims must certainly be accorded refugee status as were the Burmese, Vietnamese, Cambodians and those from Southern Thailand.

“The granting of citizenship to them is justified. Even the US, Canada, Australia, some European countries classified them as refugees and took them in as did Malaysia,” he said.

RPK also claimed that all political parties which had ruled Sabah, be it Usno, Berjaya or PBS, have allowed refugees to enter Sabah.

However, the self-exiled blogger claimed there were also scenarios where immigrants were given citizenship by syndicates for pure monetary gains or election purposes.

“Let us hope the RCI gets to the bottom of this and separate the wheat from the chaff.

“We certainly want to nail those who personally profited from selling Malaysian citizenship, and those who padded the electoral roll with ‘new citizens’,” said RPK.