‘Farcical’ Sabah RCI let Projek IC masterminds off the hook, Anwar says

The Malay Mail Online
Dec 5, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today the findings of the royal commission set up in 2012 to investigate the abnormal spike in Sabah’s foreigner population was not only “farcical”, but had also failed to bring to book the real culprits behind the problem.

The Opposition Leader noted that the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report released Wednesday had placed the blame squarely on errant civil service runners for what he described as the “biggest illegal immigrant scandal” in Malaysian history since independence.

Anwar said the report, which was 366 pages long, contained mere “meaningless” texts that saw all government agencies and departments completely exonerated of any culpability in the scandal, which has now resulted in nearly 30 per cent of Sabah’s 3.12 million population made up of foreigners.

“The masterminds and the real culprits responsible for the nefarious importation into Sabah of illegal immigrants from southern Philippines and Indonesia are completely off the hook,” he said.

“Even more glaring is the utter failure to mention the role of the National Security Council as well as the Prime Minister’s Department, let alone attribute any blame on them, notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence to that effect,” he added.

After a nine-month hearing, testimonies from 211 witnesses and more than a year’s worth of delays, the much-anticipated RCI report was finally released to the public on Wednesday.

But its findings, according to local and federal opposition politicians, fell short of expectations.

The royal panel, despite acknowledging that “Projek IC” had in all “probability” existed, said the initiative was not politically-driven as initially claimed, but likely the fault of corrupt syndicates that handed out identification cards to illegals to make a buck or two.

Due to limitations in its terms of reference, the panel also made no mention of the culprits involved or recommendation of punitive action.

The panel ended its lengthy 366-page report with a postscript that said it only has the power to “inquire” and “make findings”, while any further action is up to the government.

Anwar’s longtime arch nemesis Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been repeatedly accused of spearheading “Projek IC”, a citizenship-for-votes initiative in the 1980s that has been blamed for the illegal award of identification cards to foreigners.

But during his testimony to the RCI last year, the former prime minister blamed this on “government officers” and said that he had never heard of such an initiative “until recently”.

During the RCI’s proceedings, which started in January last year, testimonies from Filipinos and other immigrants revealed how they received their blue identification cards or the MyKad — which is proof of citizenship — in just a few years after arriving in Sabah and how they had also voted in elections.

“While it is well known that the Umno-BN government will never own up to its failings, we would have expected at least a modicum of contrition followed by a resolve to make good the errors and misdeeds of the past,” Anwar said.

“Sadly, there is nothing to show for that and Malaysians are once again treated to another farcical display of chest thumping and proclamations of grandeur reminiscent of the recently concluded Umno general assembly,” he added.