Sabah anti-illegal immigration activist Dr Chong Eng Leong is troubled that a Kuala Lumpur court last Tuesday declared by default a suspected illegal immigrant from Pakistan as a Malaysian.
The case appears to have created a dangerous precedent where others in a similar position, according to him, could get off scott-free with MyKads to which they are not entitled.
Pakistan-born carpet dealer Salman Majid, 47, had doubts over his citizenship status resolved after Justice Lau Bee Lan declared in chambers that the immigration department had failed to prove that Majid had obtained his MyKad fraudulently.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court (Appellate and Special Powers) also allowed the damages sought by Salman and revoked an immigration department order issued in 2005 to deport him to Pakistan.
Chong, the author of 'Lest We Forget – Security and Sovereignty of Sabah' – wonders why the authorities had failed to raise the questions that should have been raised to prove that Salman had obtained his MyKad fraudulently.
Speaking from his successful court challenge against the 1999 Likas state seat result, Chong pointed out that Salman himself had admitted in court that he was not in Malaysia for 23 years of his life.
"The question that should have been raised is which school or schools Salman attended in Malaysia if he was indeed born in Ranau, Sabah as he claims.
"The fact that his new MyKad number, 620202-12-5053 is encoded 12 is no proof that he's a Sabah-born Malaysian in the absence of supporting evidence," he said.
What about his parents?
Other questions that should have been raised, stressed Chong, were that about Salman's parents and their status, why he does not have a proper birth certificate, the status of the statutory declaration (SD) signed by a native chief and whether a late birth registration was issued following the SD.
It could also be queried whether the native chief was indeed one recognised by the state government and authorized to attest a SD like that held by Salman, added Chong.
“One can only conclude the immigration department was not in a position to ask the questions that should have been raised because they were under directives not to provide the necessary evidence,” he charged.
“Based on the details of this high-profile case, the Immigration Department and the federal government should have been able to provide the necessary evidence,” he added.
The immigration department should have been asked why they were unable to provide the evidence the court needed after they took various actions against Salman, ventured Chong. This included detaining him for 199 days at the Kuala International Airport from March 12, 2005.
Following his detention, the immigration department confiscated his Malaysian IC and passport and revoked his citizenship on the grounds that he had falsified documents on his status and obtained Malaysian personal documents fraudulently. The immigration department concluded, upon investigations, that he was born in Pakistan and not Malaysia as he claimed.
Salman was on the verge of being deported to Pakistan, it was learnt in court, but was released after a senior politician sent a letter to the home minister confirming that he (Salman) had been a “loyal” voter. Former Sabah chief minister Harris Salleh, an Indian-Barunai, also appeared in court as a witness for Salman.
From his investigations, continued Chong, Malaysian ICs (identity cards) were fraudulently issued to foreigners in Sabah in a running series including H038400 to H0288001 and H0480001 to H0576000 and other running series detected by others. The court could not tally these numbers with that stated on Salman's MyKad “following the failure of the immigration department in the Salman case for obvious reasons”.
RM1 million missing
Senior federal counsel Sharifah Hascindie, who appeared for the immigration department and the federal government, was quoted in the media last Thursday as saying she would “seek further instructions from the Attorney-general's Chambers on whether to file an appeal against the court's decision”. She did not indicate what the grounds of appeal would be since she did not provide any evidence in court to rebut Salman's claim that he was a Malaysian.
In a statement of claim filed on March 25, 2005, Salman among others claimed that he had voted in three general elections, that three of his six children were born in Malaysia and that he had all the documents to prove that he was a Malaysian and, further, the act of revoking his citizenship was against the Federal Constitution.
Salman also filed an application for habeas corpus but before it could be heard in court, he was set free by the immigration department.
He has also filed seven police reports that RM1 million was missing from his bank account and that no progress has been reported to him so far on the state of the investigations. The media had reported on Salman's case after he alleged that immigration officers had threatened to deport him over his police reports on the missing money.
Lawyers in Kota Kinabalu opined that the Salman verdict has cast a shadow over a similar case involving a restaurant owner in detention.
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