IF IT CAN BE DONE IN 1965, WHY NOT IN 2012?

Un-Islamic to have RCI: Muslim NGOs rush to side Putrajaya in Sabah Mykad row

Sabahans on the one side, and the illegal immigrants and their descendents on the other, are still going at each other hammer-and-tongs over the proposed Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the origin and presence of the latter in the state.

Not a day goes by without some outfit or other, claiming to represent the illegal immigrants, going to the media with their strong reservations, if not objections to the proposed RCI. In fact, all these so-called organisations should be deregistered without batting an eyelid since they are in defiance of the state and Federal Constitutions.

None of the objections merit consideration since they are either couched in threatening and inflammatory language or accompanied by hare-brained reasons which border on the bizarre.

Among the reasons cited against the RCI are that Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein Onn, whose ministry presides over the continuing influx of illegal immigrants into the state, has rejected the RCI proposal.

Other reasons are that Muslims have to subscribe to Allah’s orders calling on them to be loyal to God, the Prophet Mohammad and to their leaders – read Hishammuddin – and to maintain the peace enjoyed by the state since 1963. Nothing could be more revealing on the presence of the illegal immigrants in Sabah than statements like these emanating obviously from those with vested interests.

Last but not least, there are other reasons like that the RCI will not be able to solve or explain the explosive population growth in the state since 1963, that the Government is still in the process of registering thousands in the remote and rural locations who have no Malaysian personal documents and that those supporting the RCI have a “political motive” and must be considered as “traitors”. This is rich: illegal immigrants calling Sabahans traitors.

Whitewash RCI

It’s true that an RCI by itself will not free Sabah from continuing to be infested by illegal immigrants unless preceded or accompanied by the right measures. In any case, a RCI with half-baked Terms of Reference would be worse than having no RCI at all. The last thing that anyone wants is a whitewash job.

A must, and legal, is the declaration of an Amnesty for all illegal immigrants in the state. This can done even before the RCI sits and concludes on a note which can only be bad for the illegal immigrants, the Umno Government, the National Registration Department (NRD), the Elections Commission (EC) and other related Federal Government agencies.

An illegal immigrant can be defined as including their descendants and those who either have no papers whatsoever or have Malaysian papers which were obtained on the basis of misrepresentation and fraud. Interestingly, all the changes in the National Identity Card format introduced since 1963 have been designed to cover up and whitewash the presence of illegal immigrants in Sabah and elsewhere in the country.

A new MyKad is being introduced from next month. The illegal immigrants in Sabah, it was discovered in Keningau, had the first MyKad even before the card was introduced to the state and Sabahans could obtain them.

In 1965, it was Amnesty and the Special Pass

In 1965, eight years after Merdeka, when the Malaysian Government under Tunku Abdul Rahman discovered that thousands of people in Peninsular Malaysia had obtained citizenship by misrepresentation and fraud, it quickly declared an Amnesty.

The fraudsters were then the Indians, Chinese, the Malay-speaking communities and others and they were assured that they would not be deported if they voluntarily surrendered the Malaysian papers that they had acquired illegally. In return, they would be given Special Passes, temporary or permanent residence, as the case may be, but not before they pay a fine of RM 300.00 per person.

None of the fraudsters were discovered to be stateless and therefore they could have been deported. (In Sabah, however, many illegal immigrants have become stateless over the years and this further complicates the problem.)

To underline that it was dead serious, the Federal Government quickly wrote to the fraudsters in Peninsular Malaysia. This made them all realise that they had indeed been found out and that the game was up.

The result is that many of these fraudsters were black-listed and denied from progressing to a higher level paper than what they were given – Special Pas, temporary or permanent residence -- after surrendering their illegally-acquired Malaysian papers.

Today, it is automatic Mykad for selective groups

In recent months, after nearly 50 years, the Federal Government “relented” and began giving Malaysian citizenships to those who are still living but on the solemn oath that they would vote for the ruling party. It’s anybody’s guess what would happen to the Malaysian citizenship papers recently given to these people if they vote for the opposition.

The latest batch in Putrajaya given Malaysian citizenship consisted of 270 Indonesians and 30 Indians. No Chinese and others.

Sabahans know who the illegal immigrants are in their midst. They stick out like sore thumbs and no amount of denials from anyone in authority, or outside, will wish away the problem.

The Courts have even freed illegal immigrants – the case of twice-born Pakistani carpet trader Salman Majid, 50, represented by Karpal Singh being the most notorious – because the Federal Government refused to co-operate with the Court.

There are any numbers of other examples highlighted in the local and national media.

Indian Muslim restaurant keeper Mohd Kani Majid, 46, like Salman, escaped deportation after being held on April 10, April 2009, in Kota Kinabalu at the Menggatal detention centre for illegal immigrants. He admitted in court that he was born in India, arrived in Sabah in 1983, and obtained a MyKad in 1993 along with 100 other Indians and Pakistanis in Papar, Sabah. Mohd Kani did not apply for Malaysian citizenship before getting his MyKad. His MyKad states he was born in Papar, Sabah.

The Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) cited in Parliament, before it was re-admitted to the Barisan Nasional on 23 Jan 2002, some of the old IC numbers of illegal immigrants in running order as H0288001 to H03840000, involving 96,000 holders; H0480001 to H05760000 (96,000); H0609601 to H0610000 (400); H0658001 to H0658200 (200); H0658401 to H0659000 (600); and H0666001 to H0666400 (400). Generally, there are Chinese applicants, for example, for every few thousand IC applications in Sabah. The numbers exposed by PBS do not have even one Chinese applicant. This is the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Witch-hunt

The question of a witch-hunt does not arise. If one is not an illegal immigrant or the descendant of an illegal immigrant, one has nothing to fear. Genuine Sabahans will not target genuine Sabahans.

If fraudsters in Peninsular Malaysia can wait nearly 50 years for Malaysian papers, why should those in Sabah be treated any differently i.e. with kid gloves. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

A fraudster is a fraudster.

The law is clear.

Obtaining Malaysian personal papers by misrepresentation and fraud makes those papers a nullity in law from the very beginning. There are no two ways about it.

It’s not true to say that the Federal Government can act with impunity on the issuance of Malaysian personal papers by being in violation of the Federal Constitution.

Act on the issue of illegal immigrants in Sabah or Malaysia will lose the state in the same way Singapore left the Federation although for different reasons.

Redress

The stateless illegal immigrants, unlike those who still have legal status, must return to their home countries the same way they came in – through the back door – and re-enter legally if they wish to do so.

Alternatively, they and their descendants would remain stateless for infinity.

All illegal immigrants and the descendants in Sabah must be removed from the Electoral Rolls, the state assembly, Parliament and the Government sector including GLCs and have their scholarships terminated and withdrawn.

• The first generation of illegal immigrants can have their Malaysian papers, obtained by misrepresentation and fraud, replaced with Special Passes;
• the 2nd generation with temporary residence;
• and the 3rd and subsequent generations with permanent residence.

Each of them should also be fined no less than RM 500.00 with 70 per cent of the amount, or RM 350.00, going to the state government’s coffers.

Malaysia Chronicle