SABAH RCI The illegal granting of blue identity cards was so widespread that even foreigners working in the jungle were offered the document, the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on immigrants in Sabah heard today.
One such recipient, Maming Saleng, 63, from Sulawesi, said he arrived in Sabah in 1981 using an Indonesian passport and went on to work for logging companies in Kinabatangan.
“My manager asked me at the logging camp if I needed an identity card, so I said yes,” he testified at the Kota Kinabalu court complex today.
Subsequently, Maming said two unknown men went to the camp to process their application, including taking his picture, thumb prints and also filling up their forms.
Maming said he paid them RM50, and two month later when the men returned with his blue identity card at the logging camp, he was required to pay another RM100.
Maming, who effectively became a citizen two years after arriving from Indonesia, said around 20 of his co-workers at the logging camp also received the blue identity card with him.
His identity card stated he was born in Sandakan, and had voted ever since then in that constituency.
“I also applied for a Malaysian passport and have returned to Indonesia twice,” he said.
‘Coffeeshop IC’
Another witness who took the stand was Ahmad Soso, 53, who was also from Sulawesi. He said he arrived in Sabah in 1978 with an Indonesian passport via Tawau.
Ahmad, who was only 14 years old then, said he worked at several plantation companies until 1981 when he then went to Ranau to work as a construction worker.
Later, he received information that he could get a blue identity card in Kota Kinabalu and travelled to the city with his friends.
“I met a Bugis man in Kota Kinabalu and he took me to a house that had a family living in it.
“The man in the house filled in the form for me, took my fingerprints and asked me to pay RM10 stamp duty,” he said.
Ahmad said the man called him three months later and passed the blue identity card to him at a coffeeshop in Kota Kinabalu.
The identity card carried the code 12 to say he was born in Sabah, said Ahmad.
“I have voted in every election except in 1990. At that time I was supposed to vote in Kudat, it was too far as I live in Ranau. It was later changed to Ranau,” he said.
When it was pointed out by conducting officer Jamil Aripin that his identity card was illegally obtained as it must be from the National Registration Department’s office, Ahmad insisted he had done no wrong.
“I was registered (according to the process). It is just that I was asked to take it at a coffeeshop, so I went to the coffeeshop,” he said.
‘Illegal ICs from authorities’
Earlier, former Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Steve Shim (left), who leads the RCI, noted that such illegal identity card recipients were of the view that they had done no wrong as the document was in fact from the authorities, albeit not issued according to law.“So long as they are issued by the relevant authorities, to them (recipients), it is valid.
“They can be born in Timbuktu but if the identity card says they were born in Sabah, and this was issued by the authorities, that will be the perception.
“The question is, who is to be blamed?” he said.
A total of eight witnesses testified at the second day of the sixth RCI hearing session today.
Since the first hearing in January, a total of 155 witnesses have taken the stand before the RCI.
The granting of citizenship in Sabah has been suspended pending the outcome of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) investigation into the illegal immigrant problem in the state.
ReplyDeleteHome Minister Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaffar told Parliament that processing of applications and granting of citizenship would continue after the completion of the RCI probe.
He said the granting of citizenship in Sarawak, however, was going on as usual through an outreach programme to ensure that local children could enjoy the benefits of education and government assistance by having Malaysian citizenship.
Wan Junaidi was responding to Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing (BN-Bintulu) who wanted to know about the ministry's plans in solving the citizenship application problem in Sabah dan Sarawak.
ReplyDeleteHe said special powers under the state's law would be given to village heads, community leaders and Chinese kapitans to assist the National Registration Department's offices in determining the marital status and citizenship of the applicants' parents.
He urged elected representatives with constituents having problems pertaining to citizenship to see him, bringing along the relevant documents.
To Tiong's original question on the total number of citizenship applications approved in Bintulu, Sarawak in the last five years, Wan Junaidi said 1,507 were approved.
ReplyDeleteOn backlog cases, he said at the moment there were no citizenship applications under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution that were categorised as backlog.
He said the burden of proving eligibility for Malaysian citizenship rested with each applicant.
Officials from the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-the Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) are pushing for a massive hybrid rice and corn seeds production in a bid to become food self-sufficient by 2016.
ReplyDeleteMindanao Development Authority (MinDA) chairman and the Philippine-EAGA Signing Minister Luwalhati Antonino said moving along the sub-region’s food basket initiatives, the Philippines Department of Agriculture (DA) has identified an initial 30,000 hectares in Mindanao and Palawan, for the production of hybrid rice.
ReplyDeleteThe Social Security Organisation (Socso) will launch its massive enforcement operation, dubbed Ops Kesan 2013, against employers who fail to make Socso contributions for their employees, on Sept 1.
ReplyDeleteIts chief executive officer, Datuk K. Selvarajah, said a campaign to increase awareness among employers about Socso benefits and protection available for the employees would be held throughout July and August before the operation was finally implemented in September.
ReplyDeleteMalaysia, Indonesia and Singapore have discussed the way forward on mitigating the risk of haze, which has affected the three countries in the past weeks.
ReplyDeleteThe discussion was done in an informal trilateral meeting initiated by Malaysia on the side-lines of the 46th Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting in Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei yesterday.
ReplyDeleteDuring the meeting, the ministers noted the improving situation in the affected areas in Sumatra whereby the acreage had reduced from 16,500 hectares to 4,081 hectares.
ReplyDeleteThey also noted that as of June 28, 2013, the number of hotspots dropped to 7 from 261 due to cloud seeding and water bomber operations undertaken by the Indonesian government as well as the favourable and precipitous weather condition.
ReplyDeleteKOTA KINABALU: A division was created to check on the integrity of the Immigration Department’s staff and services, its director-general Datuk Alias Ahmad told the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah, here yesterday.
ReplyDeleteHe said the division, managed by an officer from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), aimed to raise the people’s trust in the department’s services as well as to improve staff performance.
“I admit we have our constraints. But we try to keep on improving our services.
ReplyDelete“Our focus is on the people (staff) and how to develop them to have the highest integrity,” he said.
Asked by conducting officer Manoj Kurup about forged immigrations documents, Alias said such documents could not have been issued by the immigrations staff.
He explained that the department kept records of people entering and leaving the country all the time.
ReplyDelete“There are 300 million migrations happening every time in the world and Malaysia is not excluded.
“It is quite difficult to keep track of people going in and out of the many entry points without a proper system,” he said.
According to Alias, the Immigrations Department used a biometric system at all entry points in the country to record the flow of people going in and out of the country as well as to ensure a speedy immigration process.
Asked by Manoj if there were cases of forged Malaysian passports, Alias said there was a small number as forging a Malaysian passport was a difficult attempt.
ReplyDelete“Malaysian passports are usually forged outside of the country like in China.
“However, those passports cannot be used in Malaysia as the valid Malaysian passport has a security chip,” he said.
Meanwhile, Marthen Salempang, 63, who was born in Toraja, South Sulawesi in Indonesia and came to Sabah in 1970, told the inquiry he was not aware that he had done something wrong when he applied for a Malaysian identity card (IC).
When conducting officer Jamil Aripin asked what his thoughts were if the government cancelled his Malaysian IC, he said he would apply for a permanent resident IC as he wanted to stay in Malaysia.
ReplyDelete“I admit my mistakes. I have no more relatives in Sulawesi,” he said.
Ahmad Soso, 53, who was born in Bone, South Sulawesi and also possessed a Malaysian IC through dubious means, said he was willing to adhere to
the government’s suggestions should his Malaysian IC be cancelled.
He told the inquiry he was not aware that the details in the IC issued to him were false, including his place of birth.
ReplyDeleteHe said he would like his personal details be corrected in the permanent resident IC or MyPR when he applies for it.
RCI chairman, who was a former chief judge of Sabah and Sarawak, Tan Sri Steve Shim Lip Kiong said it was not fair to put the blame completely on the immigrants for possessing the ICs via dubious means.
“So long it (IC) was issued by the relevant authorities, it is valid to them (immigrants) eventhough the details are not accurate.
ReplyDeleteThe question is, who is to be blamed?” he said.
Also sitting on the five-member panel are former University Malaysia Sabah vice-chancellor Professor Datuk Dr Kamaruzzaman Ampon, former Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Henry Chin Poy Wu, former Sabah state secretary Datuk KY Mustapha and former Sabah deputy chief minister Tan Sri Herman J Luping, who was also a former state attorney-general.
tarik semula IC yang tidak sah
ReplyDeletejgn biar kegiatan ini berleluasa.. banteras hingga ke akar umbi
ReplyDeleteSuruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja (RCI) yang menyiasat isu pendatang tanpa izin di Sabah hari ini diberitahu bahawa keuntungan wang ringgit merupakan satu-satunya motif di sebalik pengeluaran kad pengenalan (KP) kepada pendatang di Sabah oleh beberapa individu dan ejen.
ReplyDeleteSuperintenden Ahmad Fauzan Mohamad, seorang pegawai cawangan khas di Kuala Lumpur, berkata tidak terdapat motif lain di sebalik pengeluaran KP oleh sindiket berkenaan, melainkan untuk mendapatkan wang.
ReplyDelete"Mereka (pendatang) dikenakan bayaran RM50 hingga RM1,400 bagi setiap KP yang dikeluarkan kepada mereka. Saya tidak nampak ia mempunyai kaitan dengan politik, melainkan hanya untuk mendapatkan keuntungan wang ringgit. Pengeluaran KP di Sabah menghasilkan wang.
ReplyDelete"Kegiatan itu (pengeluaran KP) dirancang dengan teliti dan saya dapati selain pegawai Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN), orang awam juga terlibat sebagai ejen dan sub ejen," katanya ketika menjawab soalan pegawai siasatan Manoj Kurup.
ReplyDeleteAhmad Fauzan, yang kini bertugas di Bahagian Keselamatan dan Sindiket Pemerdagangan Manusia di Polis Cawangan Khas Kuala Lumpur, berkata berdasarkan maklumat risikan yang ditelitinya, sindiket berkenaan memperoleh lebih RM11 juta melalui kegiatan pengeluaran KP itu.
ReplyDeleteWalaupun ditanya berkali-kali, saksi itu berkata beliau berpuas hati bahawa penilaiannya mengenai maklumat risikan tentang sindiket KP ketika itu ialah ia bertujuan untuk mendapatkan keuntungan kewangan.
ReplyDeleteSabah EC Director Suggests Re-registration Exercise, RCI Told
ReplyDeleteKOTA KINABALU, July 4 (Bernama) -- A re-registration exercise of voters could ensure a clean electoral roll, Sabah Election Commission (EC) Director Datuk Md Idrus Ismail told the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah Thursday.
Conceding that it would be a tedious exercise, he said it was the best solution to address various matters such as deceased voters that were not declared with the National Registration Department and change in voters' address.
"This will need a change in laws, amendments to the constitution. But this is the best we can do to ensure transparency in our work.
ReplyDelete"This is not only best for Sabah, but also for the whole country. But it requires the commitment of the EC and the government," he told the inquiry.
According to Md Idrus, there were over 13 million names in the electoral roll, while there were about three million citizens qualified to vote, but had not registered with the EC.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Sabah National Registration Department (NRD) Director Ismail Ahmad said to address the issue of stateless children in Sabah, the Sabah laboratory in 2010 under the National Key Result Area (NKRA) of the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) Committee on Government Transformation Programme (GTP), it was proposed a special pass known as the Resident Pass be issued to those children which could be renewed after a certain period of time, yet to be decided by the state government.
He also said the proposed pass could be extended to foreigners possessing other documents, such as IMM13 issued to Filipino refugees and temporary resident identity cards, to enable them to attend school and seek employment.
ReplyDelete"Most of these people have lived here for as long as they can remember and they have become a part of our society and they can be a part of our workforce, too," he explained.
Ismail said although the proposal had been submitted to the state cabinet, it was yet to be implemented.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, the RCI panel was impressed with Philippine-born Rosalinda Ghani's diligence in obtaining her Malaysian citizenship the proper way.
ReplyDeleteThe 51-year-old restaurant owner told the inquiry she came to Sabah without travel documents when she was 14 years old to escape the conflict in southern Philippines.
She applied for an IMM13 document from the Immigration Department in Semporna and after 10 years, she applied for an entry permit to allow her to apply for a temporary resident identity card (IC) and later, a permanent resident IC.
ReplyDeleteShe told the inquiry she heard people talk about becoming a Malaysian citizen and took the initiative to find out what the prcedures were from the NRD in Semporna.
Rosalinda said last year, she was called to attend an interview at the NRD in Tawau and took an oath before a judge.
ReplyDeleteShe was later issued with a certificate of citizenship and was able to apply for a MyKad which was issued to her this year.
The RCI panel, led by former chief judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Steve Shim Lip Kiong, also comprises University Malaysia Sabah former vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Kamaruzzaman Ampon, Kuala Lumpur former police chief Datuk Henry Chin Poy Wu, Sabah former state secretary Datuk KY Mustapha and Sabah former deputy chief minister Tan Sri Herman J Luping, who was also former state attorney-general.
Tindakan sesetengah pihak terutama pembangkang yang sengaja mensensasikan perbicaraan Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja (RCI) berhubung pendatang asing tanpa izin (PATI) di Sabah yang berlangsung ketika ini, disifatkan sebagai satu perbuatan yang tidak beretika.
ReplyDeleteNaib Presiden UMNO, Datuk Seri Mohd. Shafie Apdal berkata, semua pihak seharusnya menyambut baik dan membiarkan perbicaraan tersebut berjalan dengan sebaiknya mengikut prosedur serta proses soal siasat yang telah ditetapkan.
ReplyDeleteKatanya, tidak perlu ada pihak yang memandang perkara tersebut secara negatif, selain sama-sama mengharapkan dapat mencari jalan penyelesaian untuk menangani masalah PATI di Sabah.
ReplyDeleteMenurutnya, keputusan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak untuk menubuhkan RCI bagi menjalankan siasatan adalah satu tindakan berani serta ikhlas bagi menyelesaikan isu yang telah berlangsung sekian lama.
"Ini jelas membuktikan kerajaan sentiasa mendengar suara rakyat bagi menyelesaikan isu PATI yang telah berlangsung sekian lama di Sabah dan paling penting ialah keikhlasan Perdana Menteri mencari penyelesaian sebaiknya buat rakyat," katanya.
ReplyDeleteMohd. Shafie berkata, semua pihak seharusnya membiarkan RCI menjalankan tugas yang dipertanggungjawab dengan lancar dan bukan mensensasikan perkara yang disoal siasat.
ReplyDeleteKatanya, segala maklumat yang diperoleh daripada proses pembicaraan terbuka tersebut akan dirumuskan dan dikemukakan di Parlimen, sekali gus memberi pendedahan kepada semua pihak.
ReplyDelete"Kerajaan ambil tanggungjawab ini bagi memastikan tidak ada kesulitan berlaku kepada generasi hadapan dan bukannya seperti pihak pembangkang yang hanya pandai mensensasikan isu sahaja," katanya.
ReplyDeleteSuruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja (RCI) mengenai pendatang tanpa izin di Sabah di sini hari ini diberitahu bahawa satu bahagian diwujudkan untuk memantau integriti petugas dan perkhidmatan Jabatan Imigresen.
ReplyDeletethis division, will be managed by an officer from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), aimed to raise the people's trust in the department's services as well as to improve staff performance.
ReplyDeletesementara itu, RCI sedikit sebanyak telah dapat mencari jawapan mengenai kes projek IC dan PATI di Sabah ini.
ReplyDeleteHarap akan ada berita lain lagi yang akan diperolehi.
ReplyDeleteon the other hands, Former Chief Minister Tan Sri Harris Salleh said it is not necessary to serve a subpoena on him to appear before the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah when it begins hearings.
ReplyDelete