No surnames on voter rolls: SAPP cries foul

It’s impossible to determine their identities, says Majimbun.

KOTA KINABALU: Many new voters in Sabah are registered as single names, making it nearly impossible to determine their identities, according to Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP).

SAPP Deputy President Eric Majimbum told FMT today that his party recently made a random check of the latest electoral rolls and found that 75 voters in Sepanggar, 55 in Kota Marudu and 12 in Penampang did not have surnames or patronyms.

He said this was a new development and SAPP was now checking the rolls for other parliament and state constituencies to see how widespread the trend is.

“Without the surnames or the fathers’ names, it is impossible to determine the true identities of the voters,” he said.

“With just ‘Abidin’ listed, for example, even the village head will not be able to tell whether he is a local or an illegal immigrant.”

He gave these examples of single names found on the Sepanggar roll: Asiusin, Nurisma, Deezey, Athomas, Sulen, Sanjiv and Heppi. The Penampang roll had Ajammal, Jerry, Munira, Regan and Rohani, and Kota Marudu had Ken, Nunongkapan, Suriawati, Paina and Manika.

He said he had been informed that the Election Commission (EC) was aware of the abnormality but could not do anything because these people were registered as voters on the strength of documents confirmed to have been issued by the National Registration Department (NRD).

Majimbun, who is the MP for Sepanggar, accused both the EC and NRD of refusing to accept responsibility for irregularities in voter registration.

“To whom can this matter be forwarded in order to verify that these voters are citizens and not people who have obtained MyKads illegally?” he asked.

Majimbun, who was Kota Kinabalu District Chief and Native Court Chief Judge for about 20 years, said he had never come across names like Kinsui and Rosdiana.

“They are supposed to be staying in the village near my Kampung Pomotodan, and yet I do not know them because their fathers’ names are not recorded.”

He said it was against the tradition of the people of Sabah to discard surnames or patronyms.

Dubious backgrounds

He called on the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Illegal Immigrants to include the issue in its deliberations. He said the commission must find out how people of dubious backgrounds could be identified as citizens by the NRD and registered as voters by the EC.

Majimbun recently made a police report about the theft of his own identity and brought up the matter in Parliament.

He said he discovered that the NRD had issued a Mykad bearing his surname and address to a Filipino.

The suspect MyKad carried the name Jerome Majimbon and gave his address as Kampung Pomotodon, Jalan Kionsom, Inanam, where Majimbun lives. Many Sabah natives, though related, register their surnames with slight alterations in spelling, such as in this case.

“I was surprised because we don’t have a relative with such a name and the people in Kampung Pomotodon are unaware of the existence of such a person in the village,” he said.

He later identified the man in question as a Filipino illegal immigrant whose real name is Jerom Maguil.

Majimbun also cited the case of one of his constituents who was given “permanent resident” status despite being born in Sabah long before it had joined the Federation of Malaysia.

“How is it possible that a Malaysian who has been here for years and years is denied a MyKad and citizenship and yet there are many cases of foreigners who have obtained MyKads?”

The state and federal governments have established committees to look into the issue but critics say they have not been able to resolve it.