RCIII in Sabah – Integrity of Election Commission and National Registration Dept?

(1) Ex-NRD man says ordered by Megat Junid to let immigrants vote
UPDATED @ 06:21:55 16-01-2013
By Boo Su-Lyn
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 16, 2013

KOTA KINABALU, Jan 16 — A former National Registration Department (NRD) official accused the late Tan Sri Megat Junid Megat Ayub of ordering him to issue NRD receipts enabling illegal immigrants in Sabah to vote in the 1994 state election.

Former Sabah NRD director Ramli Kamarudin said Megat Junid, then the deputy home affairs minister, had told him that the NRD receipts were to match the names and IC numbers of registered voters.

“We gave them (immigrants) RM20,” Ramli told the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants here today.

“We teach them how to vote. We gather them in a house. We send them by bus to the polling stations. Then we send them back and we collect the receipts. The receipts are just for voting. We did not give them identity cards,” he added.

Ramli said that about 200 NRD receipts were issued in five or six state constituencies each in Sabah that were considered “black spots that were difficult for the government to win.”

“One area maybe 400,” he said.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister who was in power from 1981 to 2003, has been accused of spearheading the so-called “Project IC”, in which citizenships were allegedly given to immigrants in exchange for their votes.

But former Sabah Chief Minister Tan Sri Harris Salleh, who administered the state from 1976 to 1985, denied yesterday the existence of “Project IC”.

The 1994 state election saw Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) winning just 25 out of 48 state assembly seats.

But several PBS MPs defected to Barisan Nasional (BN) shortly after, causing the collapse of the PBS government.

Ramli said today that he was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) from 1995 to 1997.

He also denied receiving bribes.

“This was a direct order from the deputy home affairs minister himself, even though I admit that it was illegal,” said Ramli.

He added that the directive was given at a meeting with Megat Junid, Umno’s Datuk Seri Osu Sukam (who later became the Sabah chief minister in 1999) and an NRD registration officer called Asli Sidup, at Hyatt Hotel here two weeks before the 1994 state election.

“The receipts were strictly for voting. After that, we would collect the receipts and destroy them,” said Ramli.

Asli testified later that 200 NRD receipts were used in the Kawang state constituency in the 1994 state election, which Osu won by a mere 64 votes.

The inquiry before RCI chairman Tan Sri Steve Shim Lip Kiong resumes tomorrow.

(2) EC ordered NRD to give ICs, change immigrants’ names, RCI told

By Boo Su-Lyn
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 16, 2013

The RCI was yesterday told that foreigners accounted for 28 per cent of Sabah’s populace. — File picKOTA KINABALU,

Jan 16 — The Election Commission (EC) had instructed the National Registration Department (NRD) to change the names of 16,000 immigrants in Sabah and to give them identity cards, the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants heard today.

Former Sabah NRD deputy director Mohd Nasir Sugip, who worked in Sabah NRD from 1992 to 1994, told the RCI today that the then-Sabah EC director, Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Yusof, had ordered Sabah NRD to change the names of Indonesian and Filipino immigrants to increase the number of Muslim voters in Sabah.

Wan Ahmad’s full name was not given.

“Ops Durian Buruk (Spoilt Durian) is an operation that involves changing and creating new names from the names given by SPR,” said Nasir at the RCI here today, referring to the EC by its Malay acronym.

“It means that the names were changed, IC numbers were changed, date of birth was changed… and their pictures,” he added.

Nasir said he was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) from 1995 to 1998 for giving identity cards to unqualified immigrants.

Nasir added that 800 names had been handed to the Sugut state and the Kinabatangan parliamentary constituencies.

“As far as I remember, the results of the elections favoured Barisan Nasional (BN), YB Datuk Surady Kayong,” he said.

BN candidate Surady had defeated Parti Bersatu Sabah’s (PBS) Jublee KK Zen in Sugut during the 1994 state election with a razor-sharp margin of 79 votes.

Surady is currently the assistant minister of local government and housing in Sabah.

But Nasir denied receiving bribes for his role in the exercise.

“I just followed instructions… and I signed a pledge with my director,” he said.

Asked if there was a pact between the EC and the NRD to increase the number of voters in Sabah, he said: “There was some co-operation and collaboration between [the NRD] and [EC] in this kind of exercise.”

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister who was in power from 1981 to 2003, has been accused of spearheading the so-called “Project IC”, in which citizenships were allegedly given to immigrants for their votes.

But former Sabah Chief Minister Tan Sri Harris Salleh, who administered the state from 1976 to 1985, denied yesterday the existence of “Project IC”.