An Indian national obtained Malaysian citizenship from the Sabah
National Registration Department (NRD) by simply using a false statutory
declaration, the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into Sabah
immigrants was told today.
Nur Mohd Ibrahim, who hails from Tamil Nadu, India, said he entered Sabah in 1981 and soon after applied for a blue identity card on the urging of Filipino colleagues at a restaurant where he worked.
However, his first application using a false SD was rejected.
In 1983, he tried his luck again, using the same method, and was granted a blue identity card in 1987. This was merely six years after he had set foot on Malaysian soil.
The SD stated that Nur Mohd was born in Kinarut, Papar.
Nur Mohd told the RCI that he registered as a voter in 1991 - eight years after he became citizen. According to him, he has voted four times in the state seat of Likas.
In 2001, the Election Court had ruled that former Sabah chief minister Yong Teck Lee's (left) victory in Likas null and void due to the prevalence of illegal immigrants on the electoral roll.
Yong had won the seat at the Sabah 1999 state election and the results was challenged by two defeated candidates.
Then High Court judge Muhammad Kamil Awang, who revealed he was pressured by his superiors to dismiss the application, said in his judgment: "The instances of non-citizens and phantom voters in the electoral roll as disclosed in this trial may be the tip of the iceberg.
"It could not be denied that the registration of voters in the Likas electoral roll was in contravention of the law. No one including the government department is above the law."
‘Sabah chief minister is ... Mahathir’
Nur Mohd said the SD he used had been drafted by a commissioner of oaths in Kepayan and his Filipino friends taught him to list a place in Sabah as a his birth place.
"Even though I got my blue identity card, I was scared to use it because I was not sure if it was valid or not until I registered as a voter in 1991," he said.
Queried by conducting officer Jamil Aripin if he knew this was tantamount to cheating the NRD, Nur Mohd remained silent.
He then proceeded to test the witness' knowledge of Malaysia, and Nur Mohd managed to name the three most recent prime ministers without trouble.
However,
when asked who the chief minister of Sabah is, he replied: "Mahathir"
before withdrawing his statement as he invited giggles around the room.
It is unclear if Nur Mohd's identity card was part of any illegal operation but the NRD rules were relaxed in the 1980s to accept SDs as identification documents in applications for blue identity cards.
This rule was abolished in 1987, and since then, only birth certificates have been accepted.
Nur Mohd Ibrahim, who hails from Tamil Nadu, India, said he entered Sabah in 1981 and soon after applied for a blue identity card on the urging of Filipino colleagues at a restaurant where he worked.
However, his first application using a false SD was rejected.
In 1983, he tried his luck again, using the same method, and was granted a blue identity card in 1987. This was merely six years after he had set foot on Malaysian soil.
The SD stated that Nur Mohd was born in Kinarut, Papar.
Nur Mohd told the RCI that he registered as a voter in 1991 - eight years after he became citizen. According to him, he has voted four times in the state seat of Likas.
In 2001, the Election Court had ruled that former Sabah chief minister Yong Teck Lee's (left) victory in Likas null and void due to the prevalence of illegal immigrants on the electoral roll.Yong had won the seat at the Sabah 1999 state election and the results was challenged by two defeated candidates.
Then High Court judge Muhammad Kamil Awang, who revealed he was pressured by his superiors to dismiss the application, said in his judgment: "The instances of non-citizens and phantom voters in the electoral roll as disclosed in this trial may be the tip of the iceberg.
"It could not be denied that the registration of voters in the Likas electoral roll was in contravention of the law. No one including the government department is above the law."
‘Sabah chief minister is ... Mahathir’
Nur Mohd said the SD he used had been drafted by a commissioner of oaths in Kepayan and his Filipino friends taught him to list a place in Sabah as a his birth place.
"Even though I got my blue identity card, I was scared to use it because I was not sure if it was valid or not until I registered as a voter in 1991," he said.
Queried by conducting officer Jamil Aripin if he knew this was tantamount to cheating the NRD, Nur Mohd remained silent.
He then proceeded to test the witness' knowledge of Malaysia, and Nur Mohd managed to name the three most recent prime ministers without trouble.
However,
when asked who the chief minister of Sabah is, he replied: "Mahathir"
before withdrawing his statement as he invited giggles around the room.It is unclear if Nur Mohd's identity card was part of any illegal operation but the NRD rules were relaxed in the 1980s to accept SDs as identification documents in applications for blue identity cards.
This rule was abolished in 1987, and since then, only birth certificates have been accepted.
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It is important that the general public waits until the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) completes its work and announces its findings
It is important that the general public waits until the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) completes its work and announces its findings before it draws conclusions about the motives behind the issuance of Malaysian identity documents to foreigners in the past. Only then would people in both Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia have a clear picture of what really happened, and why.
It is important that the general public waits until the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) completes its work and announces its findings
If statements by individual witnesses are viewed as the entire truth, we may fall into the trap of subscribing to partial accounts of a complex reality. After all, the statements issued by some witnesses on the third day of the Inquiry were contradicted by subsequent testimonies on the fourth and fifth days. This is what one should expect in an open and honest investigation.
It is important that the general public waits until the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) completes its work and announces its findings
Establishing a Royal Commission on such a contentious and controversial issue which has been at the core of Sabah politics for more than three decades was an act of tremendous courage on the part of the Najib Government.
It is important that the general public waits until the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) completes its work and announces its findings
It demonstrates a readiness to embrace the truth however painful it may be. It is only when the whole truth is known that the multireligious and multi-cultural people of Sabah will be rid of misgivings, doubts and suspicions which have sullied their hitherto harmonious inter-ethnic ties.
It is important that the general public waits until the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) completes its work and announces its findings
To enable the truth to set the people free, they should not overlook a critical dimension in the issuance of Malaysian identity documents and indeed, the conferment of citizenship upon foreigners.
It is important that the general public waits until the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) completes its work and announces its findings
A significant portion of those who sought refuge in Sabah from the seventies onwards comprised the tragic victims of a protracted war in Mindanao which has just ended. This is the humanitarian aspect of citizenship which a civilised state must uphold if it is genuinely committed to compassion and justice.
It is important that the general public waits until the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) completes its work and announces its findings
Their role in the crucial tin and rubber sectors of the economy, the threat posed by the largely Chinese communist insurgency, and the need for inter-ethnic cooperation in the drive towards Merdeka were some of the principal reasons why a million Chinese and Indians were conferred citizenship in the twinkling of an eye.
It is important that the general public waits until the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) completes its work and announces its findings
As Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has correctly observed, the UMNO elite was even prepared to set aside conventional citizenship norms in order to bring the new Malayans abroad.
It is important that the general public waits until the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) completes its work and announces its findings
This was in stark contrast to the approach adopted by leaders in other similarly divided societies --- societies in which an indigenous-non-indigenous dichotomy had developed as a result of colonial rule such as Indonesia and Burma (Myanmar) --- where the rules of citizenship were stringently applied so as to ensure the assimilation of the foreign component.
It is important that the general public waits until the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) completes its work and announces its findings
In Malaysia, on the other hand, accommodation of the other changed the landscape drastically. The people who had given the land its identity through Malay Sultanates that have existed for hundreds of years were now relegated to a community among communities.
It is important that the general public waits until the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) completes its work and announces its findings
In other words, by extending citizenship to the Chinese and Indians on such generous terms, the very character of the nascent nation had changed. Adjusting Malay rights arising from this consciousness of a Malay land with the interests of the non-Malays through integration via common citizenship in a larger Malaysian nation has remained the most fundamental challenge of the last 55 years.
It is important that the general public waits until the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) completes its work and announces its findings
In a sense, Sabah, by conferring citizenship upon the migrants from its neighbourhood, in the eighties and nineties, has also experienced a parallel, though different, transformation.
It is important that the general public waits until the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) completes its work and announces its findings
The non-Muslim Bumiputra component of the population which was the largest segment of a multi-religious society at the time of the state’s incorporation into Malaysia in 1963, lost its lead position to the Muslim Bumiputra component. The angst and anxiety this has created in various circles is understandable and should be addressed with much empathy.
It is important that the general public waits until the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) completes its work and announces its findings
Harmonising the interests of these two segments with the non-Muslim, non-Bumiputra elements, calls for astute statesmanship and dexterity. In this regard, Sabah is fortunate to have as one of its foremost leaders a person like Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kittingan whose political maturity and wisdom have helped to sustain an appreciable degree of interreligious and inter-cultural peace.
The Government will act on any report or resolution by the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on Illegal Immigrants in Sabah, said Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail.
In giving this assurance, he said, where there were criminal elements involved, action would be taken, and wrongs would be righted.
"Yes, if there are criminal offences, we will act. This is the Government's promise. That is why, the RCI was set up.
"However, we must remember, if we talk about criminal prosecution, we have to see whether there is sufficient evidence. In the RCI, everything that people say is acknowledged, but without evidence, we cannot accept.
We can accept hearsay evidence.
"To enable us to go to court, we have to look at admissible evidence.
This is not an excuse not to take action against those who committed a crime. We will take action, but according to the law," he told.
Abdul Gani also urged all parties to have confidence in the RCI which he said, had delved extensively into all issues which were exposed.
"Everyone knows, that many were arrested (including) those with identity cards. This shows that the government is transparent. Looking at another aspect, it is a promise fulfilled.
"The Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) had said he would see to it that an RCI would be set up, and that it would be transparent and reliable.
Otherwise, all these issues would not have been exposed.
"And, I am very glad and happy with it because that is what we want.
Why, because the truth must come out exactly as it is," he said.
Abdul Gani said, a mistake could have been committed earlier, and that mistake was being investigated, whether it was committed by government officers or the Government itself, or there was an element of fraud or corruption, which should be resolved for everyone's satisfaction.
"And, that mistake, we have to rectify...it is very important for this State (Sabah), it's my State.
We must do something. So, don't be in a haste, let's wait and see, just allow the RCI to do its job effectively," he said.
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