KOTA KINABALU, July 17 – Bingkor assemblyman Datuk Jeffrey Kitingan today informed the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah that a National Registration Department (NRD) officer had shown him a list of some 60,000 foreigners who obtained Malaysian identity cards (ICs) in the 1990s.
Jeffrey, a former detainee under the now defunct Internal Security Act (ISA), said he brought the matter up with his former political party, Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), and a police report was lodged by the party’s then secretary-general Datuk Radin Malleh.
“But no action has been taken since then,” he said.
Jeffrey said at the time he was presented with the list, he had lost his IC and went to the NRD to get a replacement.
“I was brought to a room by one officer who showed me the list and told me he felt sad that such a scenario was happening in Sabah and that the people on the list, who would also be subsequently included in the electoral roll, was just a small number, but many more were to come.”
He was testifying before the five-man inquiry panel led by former chief judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Steve Shim Lip Kiong.
Jeffrey also told the inquiry that he had an encounter with a man known to him as “Haji” some time ago who showed him a sack of blue ICs claimed to have been issued during the Project IC that was rumoured to have been a project by the government.
“The issuance of those ICs would lead to problems to Sabah and in fact, Sabah is already at stake and the most recent example is the Lahad Datu intrusion,” he said.
He claimed that many of the intruders killed during Ops Daulat or Operation Sovereignty in March were buried here because they possessed Malaysian ICs.
Jeffrey said the problem of ICs issued through dubious means could be rectified by enforcing laws, changing the existing documentation systems, and eradicating corruption.
He also said that those responsible for issuing Malaysian ICs to foreigners should be punished.
“If not, this problem will never be solved and it will be repeated because those responsible in the first place are not punished,” he said.
The inquiry continues tomorrow.
– BERNAMA
