LYING AGAIN! Pakatan reps slam Dr M's 'selective amnesia'

KUALA LUMPUR — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders told Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today that no one would believe that he had no knowledge of “Projek IC”, a controversial citizenship-for-votes initiative in Sabah that many claimed had happened during the former prime minister’s reign.

The immediate response from Sabah PR leaders was that Dr Mahathir’s testimony to the Sabah Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) this morning was likely packed with lies, despite being made while under oath.

“We don’t believe him,” said Datuk Seri Wilfred Mojilip Bumburing, who is the president of the PR-friendly Angkatan Perubahan Sabah (APS) movement.

“I think the majority of Sabah thinks that he is behind it and that he is hiding something,” the well-known Kadazandusun Murut leader told The Malay Mail Online.

Speaking from the RCI stand today, Dr Mahathir’s first claim as the panel’s 209th witness was that he had never heard of the “Projek IC” initiative “until recently”.

The former prime minister also blamed “government officers” for the illegal awarding of ICs to foreigners, appearing to absolve himself from all blame over the controversial project that reportedly occurred from the 1980s.

But Bumburing reminded Dr Mahathir that he could not escape blame entirely as the illegal exchanges had occurred during the latter’s watch and as prime minister at the time, he was likely in the know.

“He is not telling the truth. The RCI has also seen so many witnesses speaking about Projek IC. So many evidence has come out... it cannot be denied,” the Tamparuli assemblyman said.

Concurring, PKR’s Penampang MP Darell Leiking said that it was near impossible that Dr Mahathir had not known about “Projek IC”.

Like Bumburing, Leiking pointed out that many witnesses at the RCI had testified to the existence of the initiative, which could prove that Dr Mahathir was not being truthful.

“Dr Mahathir has been suffering from amnesia a lot lately. He spoke on oath too... he may believe what he wants to believe but us Sabahans know that Projek IC existed.

“How else did these people become citizens?” he asked, referring to the nearly 30 per cent of foreigners who make up Sabah’s 3.12 million population.

“It is quite impossible that he did not know anything,” the deputy PKR secretary-general added.

DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang, who took to Twitter immediately when Dr Mahathir’s testimony came out in news portals this morning, told The Malay Mail Online that he believed his long-time arch-nemesis was suffering from “selective amnesia”.

“I don’t think many people would believe that he never heard of Projek IC until recently because it was talked about since the 1990s.

“It is inconceivable that as the PM, he does not know what this is... and that he is even blaming it on the lower level of implementation,” the Gelang Patah MP said.

Dr Mahathir was called to the RCI stand at the Kota Kinabalu High Court today as the 209th witness in the probe to investigate claims that illegal aliens were awarded citizenships in exchange for their votes.

The bid, under “Projek IC” or “Projek M”, is also said to be responsible for the abnormal spike in Sabah’s population. At present, nearly 30 per cent of the state’s massive 3.12 million-strong populace are foreigners.

Dr Mahathir, who ruled as prime minister from 1981 to 2003, has been repeatedly named as the man who spurred the initiative.

Malay Mail