Right the wrongs of Project IC, ex-senator insists

DAP’s Ramakrishnan challenges Najib Razak to disclose the findings of the earlier PSC before initiating a new RCI.

JOHOR: Johor DAP Deputy Chairman, S Ramakrishnan has asked Prime Minister Najib Razak to reveal the earlier findings of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) in 2007, on illegal immigrants in Sabah.

Ramakrishnan also alleged that the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) absolved the culprits who were responsible for the organised and free influx of about 69,000 illegal immigrants who were later included in the electoral list.

He further lamented that the RCI did not probe into the motive behind project IC or project Mahathir, but rather, shifted the blame to corrupt civil servants.

He said that even the man in the street and the illegal immigrants themselves knew who the culprits were, but somehow or other, the RCI could not pinpoint them.

“No civil servant would dare to openly allow illegal immigrants into the country, if not for the powerful political figures behind them,” remarked Ramakrishnan.

He surmised that when USNO’s Mustapha lost the election to PBS, he could not accept the results, so the Federal Government under former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, colluded with Tun Mustapha to overthrow PBS’ Pairin Kitingan.

As a result, Muslim illegal immigrants were allowed into Sabah and registered as voters,” said Ramakrishnan, who added that it is obvious who is responsible for this treason, but the RCI did not have the moral courage or honesty to name the culprits.

“Najib must have appointed the RCI to whitewash their wrongs and absolve the wrongdoers,” he concluded.

According to Ramakrishnan, Najib formed the RCI on illegal immigrants on August 11, 2012, in response to the resignation of three MPs due to the inaction of the federal government regarding the matter.

“The current PM had led a parliamentary select committee in 2007 on illegal immigrants to Sabah but nothing came out of it,” he said.

He also alleged that former PM, Mahathir, was also directly involved and recently even justified project IC.

In defence of the issuance of identity cards to illegal Muslim immigrants from the Philippines and Indonesia, Mahathir said: “On the basis of the length of stay and mastering of the national language, they qualify to be citizens of this country, and so they acquired citizenship.”

He questioned why the migrants of Sabah, who were well qualified, couldn’t be accepted as citizens, and retorted that the objections to them being accepted seemed political.

Ramakrishnan further pointed out that Mahathir, in his blog posting, claimed that choosing not to naturalise migrants in Sabah was racist, and that Malaysians should accept that their fellow citizens may come from different backgrounds.

“Project IC was clearly done under the blessing of Umno so that the political party of their choice will rule Sabah.

Umno wanted to neutralise and split Kadazandusun and Chinese votes in Sabah so that they become politically weak, a game Umno is good at,” he said.

Ramakrishnan also alleged that Project IC involved certain political parties as well as various government agencies including the Election Commission of Malaysia, the National Registration Department and the Immigration Department, which comes under the purview of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

“After six months of investigation, GE13 would be over and everything will be back to what it was before.”

Ramakrishnan asked the PM to disclose the findings of the earlier PSC headed by him before initiating a new RCI with Terms of Reference that would investigate who the culprits responsible for the fiasco were.

He was disappointed that the RCI had clearly “cheated” and let down the Sabahans’ hope to clean up their electoral list.

“The RCI report is not worth the paper it is reported on. If it is worth its paper the report should be debated and deliberated in parliament,” lamented Ramakrishnan.

He pointed out that in West Malaysia, there are thousands of Malaysian-born Indians and Chinese holding red ICs who after years of attempting to obtain citizenship are still considered stateless.

“For the slightest of reasons they were issued red ICs. But hundreds of thousands of Indonesian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Filipino illegal immigrants are freely issued citizenship,” he added.

“Unfortunately, these wicked designs will affect the rights and opportunities of Sabahans and all other Malaysians.

“The end cannot justify the means,” concluded Ramakrishnan.