ANNOUNCEMENT A POLITICAL PLOY FOR POLLS

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Deputy President, Mohd. Azmin Ali said the formation of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to look into the illegal immigrant issue in Sabah is a political gimmick by the Government in view of the coming 13th General Election.

He said despite taking four months for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to announce the set up on Friday, it still lacks the Terms of Reference (TOR) and names of the members.

Azmin said the Government should be more serious and expedite the whole process.

"If he (PM) took four months just to announce the formation, how long will he take to announce its TOR and appoint members of the commission.

"This is just a political ploy. That is why the leadership of PKR will continue the protest so that the Government will expedite the whole process. We need the Government to be serious," he said after launching the party's election machinery near Sembulan, here.

The latter, also latter flagged off the convoy of 25 Parliamentary Constituents as a sign that the party is ready to face the election.

He said the party also wants to know how illegal immigrants could be given citizenship without following a valid procedures and to investigate the 'Projek IC' which was allegedly sponsored by former Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir.

"This issue could violate the State's sovereignty and also the whole nation. The commission should not only be formed at State level but also in the national level and look into the issue wholesomely," said Azmin, adding that this was among the reasons PKR organised the convoy Padang Siul in Hungab in Penampang.

Earlier, Azmin, who is also the Director of PKR's Central election machinery, said Najib should stop playing riddles on election dates, adding that all parties should given enough time to campaign.

On the election machinery, he said, the party is satisfied with the administration of PKR Sabah under Ahmad Thamrin and will launch its manifesto via 3 million flyers to distributed nationwide.

He also said Sabah PKR would launch its own manifesto at State level.

Meanwhile, PKR Tuaran Parliamentary candidate Ansari Hj Abullah doubted that anything would come out of the RCI "because BN are the real culprits who created the problem here".

He also asked if there is any guarantee that the culprits behind "Projek IC" would be dragged to jail.

"We don't want to make the assumption that those who set up the RCI and appointed into the commission are also those who have legalised the illegal immigrants," he said, at the party's Kaamatan Festival celebration in Tg Aru Plaza.

He also alleged that one 'main actor' was detained under the Internal Security Act for orchestrating 'Projek IC' and rewarded with a RM100 million contract to build a Defence Ministry project in Kinarut upon his release.

Ansari reckoned that up to 400,000 illegal immigrants in the State may have been legalised under 'Projeck IC' as revealed by the Malaysian Statistics Department and Datuk Seri Najib's 500,000 illegal immigrants statement.

"My question is, in the Malaysian Statistics Department, a federal department said the number of people without documents in Sabah is more than 998,000 people.

"If there are more then 900,000 illegals here this means the remainder 400,000 people have documents," he said adding that the RCI should not only be formed in Sabah but nationwide.

Meanwhile, PKR Strategist Rafizi Ramli Rafizi claimed that Umno had taken all the resources in more than seven years of domination in Sabah.

"The most despised thing they have done is give away two oil blocks to a neighbouring state," he said.

Among present were PKR Deputy President, Mohd Azmin Ali, PKR Sabah leader Thamrin Hj Jaini, PKR Kota Kinabalu candidate, Christina Liew and some 200 people who were entertained to cultural performances, songs in the KDM language and lucky draws.