DR. MAHATHIR TRYING TO BLOCK RCI

By : DATUK WENCES ANGANG

I TOTALLY agree for foreigners to be granted citizenship if they have been here for decades legally. However, is iindeed morally and politically wrong to grant citizenship to foreigners who came into the country through illegal means  and legally wrong to grant citizenship to foreigners with refugees status.

But somehow, the are foreigners who are qualified to be granted such citizenship and given Malaysian IC, who  have been waiting for their citizenship applications to be approved but have not been approved for reason not specifically stated by the approving authorities.

Under the 20-points agreement which the basis of the Malaysia Agreement 1963, though NRIC issues is under federal matters, the State authorities must be consulted when approving citizenship to foreigners. The approving of citizenship must be purely on constitutional grounds and not 'mass issuance' of ICs by the authorities.

The mass issuance of citizenship by the authorities can be seen as more politically motivated rather than the questioning of such exercise.  Surprisingly question arises as to why Tun Dr. Mahathir have been mum on this issues for all these yearsvsince he step down as PM and now he come out suddenly and voice his strong support for the granting of citizenship to the huge number of foreigners just when the PM is coming over Sabah to formally announce the formation of RCI.

It seem as though seem that Dr. M is seen to be trying to block the formation of RCI to investigate the PATI issues. That being the case, the content of the book by Mutalib M.D, 'PROJECT IC: AGENDA TERSEMBUNYI MAHATHIR?' has a lot of truth in it and out to be presented to the RCI as part of the evidences to support the allegation that the granting of citizenship and issuance of MyKad to foreign citizens contain sinister polical agendas that started during the Mahathir era.

Nevertheless, with the high expectation and high hope on the visit bythe PM to shed more light on the formation and implementaion of RCI, the statementof Dr. M is an anti-climax of the visit by the PM, as well the impending annoucement and implementation of the RCI by him.

Along these lines, we have high confidence that the PM will eventually and formally announce the formation of the RCI despite the distraction and other issues raised by certain political leaders who seem to be trying to block the formation of the RCI including Tun Dr. Mahathir.

I suggest he (Tun Dr. Mahathir) should just retire peacefully and let the PM runs the administration of this country without any outside intereference."