Mahathir asks on live TV, what's Project IC?

Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad claimed ignorance at the existence of “Project IC” during a live television interview programme before justifying the granting of citizenship to foreigners in Sabah.

“What project is this? What is IC?” said Mahathir, whose facial experience appear as though he was confounded by interviewer Sheahnee Iman Lee's question.

When pointed out that the “Project IC” was the subject of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI), Mahathir replied: “Right. Oh, the one in Sabah?”

Mahathir went on to provide his side of the story on how he, as prime minister, had instructed government agencies to recognised qualified migrants as citizens in Sabah.

His argument was that these people spoke Malay and that their children could not go to school because they were not considered citizens. 

“As a matter of charity, almost, we decided (that) they have been working there, they speak Malay and why can't we consider them as out citizens?

“Tunku Abdul Rahman gave one million citizenships to people who couldn't speak a single word of Malay and their children also do not qualify. 

“If you going to be a citizen, you have to be tested on whether you are able to speak Malay or not. But the people in Sabah can. The one million that we gave (before Independence), why no questions were asked?” said Mahathir. 

Right hand men involved

Mahathir was said this during a special primetime programme on ntv7last night called 'Chattime with Tun Dr Mahathir' which lasted an hour.

Over the past three decades, Sabah's population had rose exponentially and is blamed on a clandestine effort by the Mahathir-administration to alter the state's demographics for political reasons.

Sabah once had a non-Muslim majority, but that is now no longer the case.

Testimonies from civil servants to the Sabah RCI have shown a link between organised efforts to increase Sabah's Muslim population with a plot to vote out the Parti Bersatu Sabah government in 1994.

Other testimonies showed that two of Mahathir's right hand menwere involved ordering various activities that were later referred to as Project IC or Project M by those investigating the population boom.

Cronyism

On cronyism, Mahathir said his administration had helped certain people with business acumen because those with a track record were more likely to succeed.

“If you give one million dollars to a trishaw peddler, is he going to make use of it? He is going to consume it.

“But if you give it to a person with the ability to do business he is going to make use of the opportunity and the capital in order to grow his business. 

“And when he grows his business, obviously he will be quite well known, he is considered a crony. The real cronies who fail, nobody mentions about them,” he said.

Mahathir said that the government helped those with capacity because helping those who cannot grow a business will not contribute to the economy.