PROJECT IC, NO MORE CLANDESTINE

By : HAKIM JOE

SABAH possesses the largest number of migrant workers in Malaysia, exceeding even Selangor. One simple question, “Why would the poorest state in Malaysia have such a large number, even to the extent of eclipsing the richest state in Malaysia”? Are there so many ongoing projects in Sabah that the state requires so many migrant workers? If yes, why is it still the poorest state in Malaysia?

As the name implies, this is a clandestine project that involves the alleged citizenship drive to naturalize illegal migrants for political purposes, which started in the 1990s, and was targeted against the two East Malaysian states, especially Sabah.

By introducing new elements into the concoction, one adulterates its overall effect and by integrating migrant Muslims from Indonesia and the Philippines into Sabah as Malaysian citizens, it dilutes the concentration of the indigenous people there. By the same token, this does not automatically mean that these new migrants will vote BN but the odds are pretty high that they will and it is a risk worth taking.

The population of Sabah in the early 70s was about 655,000 and the major ethnic groups comprise of 32% Kadazan/Dusun, 23% Chinese and 4.9% Muruts (total 59.9%). These are majority non-Muslims but either Christians or Buddhists. Henceforth, should Umno set up its branches in Sabah during the 70s, they will be in the minority as Malay Muslims only made up 0.4% and Bajaus (also Muslims) made up 13.1% of the Sabah populace (total 13.5%). Lousy odds.

Fast forward it to 2006 and the demographics have been utterly distorted. The ethnic composition of Sabahans are now 17.8% Kadazan/Dusun, 9.6% Chinese and 3.3% Muruts (total 29.7%) whereas Malay Muslims increased to 11.5%, Bajaus increased to 13.4% and “Other Bumiputras” comprised of 14.6% respectively (total 44.5%).

What and who the Hell are “Other Bumiputras” anyway? Let’s not even get into how these new migrants are accorded Bumiputra statuses whilst non-Muslims that have been here for a couple of generations are deemed second class citizens.

In a normal society, the number of the majority ethnic group will increase in tandem with the population increase. Since the Kadazan/Dusun were prominent back in the 60s and 70s comprising 32% of Sabahans, this ethnic group should make up approximately 40% to 45% of Sabah’s population in the 90s. However, this is not what actually transpired. In fact the number of ethnic Kadazan/Dusun almost halved from 32% to only 17.8%.

Sabah’s population increased to 1,307,582 in 1980; 1,736,902 in 1991; 2,449,389 in 2000 and 3.21 million in 2010 making it the state with the highest population growth rate at 3.1% compared to the national average of 2.3%. As per indicated in the previous paragraph, the total number of Kadazan/Dusun declined drastically. Does this mean that the majority of Kadazan/Dusuns in Sabah owns VCD & DVD players whereas most of the Malay-Muslims do not (hence finding other nocturnal activities to entertain themselves)?

Project IC or “Project M” is an ominous long term plan to modify the demographic pattern of Sabah to make it more favorable to the ruling government and certain political parties, especially with regards to changing the electoral voting patterns. In West Malaysia, we have frogs and gerrymandering.

In East Malaysia, we covertly change the demographics. It is therefore not surprising that Umno calls both Sabah and Sarawak their “fixed deposits” as in “you will still vote for us regardless of how we abuse and mistreat you.” Example, Sabah was the second richest state after Selangor in 1970. Now it is the poorest state. Even Perlis with only 317 square miles of real estate to call its own and without a single drop of oil in its soil is richer than Sabah.

Any Sabahans out there? Does reading this makes you want to puke?

Let’s discuss migrant workers now before going on to Project IC. Sabah possesses the largest number of migrant workers in Malaysia, exceeding even Selangor. One simple question, “Why would the poorest state in Malaysia have such a large number, even to the extent of eclipsing the richest state in Malaysia”? Are there so many ongoing projects in Sabah that the state requires so many migrant workers? If yes, why is it still the poorest state in Malaysia?

When asked, the top official of the federal Ministry for Women, Family and Community,Dato Dr. Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur said that 27.7% out of the 3.21 million in Sabah comprised of migrant workers with a large majority of them being Indonesians. Furthermore, the immigrant population in the Kinabatangan district in 2010 has already surpassed the local population (73.8% immigrants & 26.2% locals). What this basically means is that there are more Indonesians and Filipinos in a Malaysian district, on Malaysian soil, than Malaysians.

In the 70s, there was no such thing as migrant workers in Sabah. Nowadays they make up more than a quarter of Sabah’s population. In an earlier interview, TDM said that these migrant workers, regardless of whether they overstayed or entered the country illegally, qualify for Malaysian citizenship “if they spoke Bahasa Malaysia”. Does this mean that nothing else really mattered except for the mastery of the language? Does this mean that a convicted murderer or child molester qualifies for Malaysian citizenship should he or she is capable of speaking fluent Bahasa Malaysia?

So, how could anyone get away with it unless it has been sanctioned from up above? An illegal immigrant would first need his history cleansed and that involves the Immigration Department. Then he needs to be “made” a citizen and that involves the National Registration Department. Finally, he needs to register as a voter and that involves the Election Commission. Fortunately (for someone), only one ministry is involved as the Immigration Department, the National Registration Department and the Election Commission all comes under the purview of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

If the government of Malaysia is allegedly giving citizenship to anyone who spoke fluent Bahasa Malaysia, then hypothetically there should then be a mixture of Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Hare Krishnas and atheists coming in from all around the world. How then does one justify that only the majority of these immigrants are all Muslims from Indonesia and the Philippines?

This is however purely a conjecture as the NRD would not confirm or deny it. Hell, they even said in advance that they would consider not attending any Parliamentary Select Committee if indeed the department were called upon to testify. Basically, it is a subtle way of telling the Sabahans to fuck off. Additionally, the NRD would seriously only consider attending if a Royal Commission of Inquiry is initiated, that is if the RCI really happens.

Should all Sabahans take it as it is? Certainly not! Are all Sabahans taking it as it is? Absolutely so! Sometimes I wonder if you people across the straits have your head properly screwed in. Don’t blame the West Malaysians. We delivered five states in the last general elections (it is just that they took one back no thanks to the Jelapang female dog). Five out of eleven over here is not too shabby. Zero out of two across the sea definitely is.

Anyway, the RCI failed to materialize but in 2007 a PSC was initiated to investigate the existence and functions of Project IC. Bernard Dompok was selected as its chairman but he soon quit as the NRD lived up on its promise and informed everybody that the department will not be appearing before the PSC.

On the first of June this year, our dearly beloved PM announced that the federal government has (finally) agreed to set up a RCI to investigate problems related to illegal immigration in Sabah. Then nothing happened until Tuaran MP Datuk Seri Wilfred Mojilip Bumburing, formerly UPKO’s Deputy President, Beaufort MP Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin, formerly an Umno supreme council member and Senator Datuk Maijol Mahap, a Vice-President in BN’s Sabah-based United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (UPKO) defected from BN’s fold. Suddenly the federal government officially announced the formation of the RCI including the members of the commission and the Terms of References. Now we wait (again).

Anyway, the members of the commission include Steve Shim (Chairman), a former Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak; Saripuddin Kasim (Secretary), the Secretary General of the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry; Kamaruzaman Ampon (Commissioner) the vice-chancellor of Universiti Malaysia Sabah; Herman Luping (Commissioner) the former Sabah State Attorney General; KY Mustafa (Commissioner) the former Sabah State Secretary; and Henry Chin Poy Wu (Commissioner) the deputy chairman of the Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation.

The eight Terms of References include:

1) To investigate the number of foreigners in Sabah given blue Malaysian ICs or citizenships;

2) To investigate if the award of such ICs or citizenships were according to the law;

3) To investigate if those given blue ICs, temporary identification receipts or citizenships through unlawful means have been registered in Sabah’s electoral roll;

4) To investigate if the authorities have taken any action or made improvements to standard operating procedures (SOPs), methods and regulations to prevent any

irregularities in accordance with the law;

5) To conduct a deeper probe into the SOPs, methods and regulations on the award of blue ICs or citizenships to foreigners in Sabah by taking into consideration international norms and standards that are applicable to Malaysia, and to recommend amendments or changes to improve current practices;

6) To investigate the reasons behind Sabah’s population growth according to the following categories:

 a) Sabah citizens residing in the state, including those given blue ICs or citizenships through birth certificates (late registration);

 b) foreign workers (including family members);

 c) illegal immigrants (including family members); and

 d) fugitives

 and to study their impact on the number of those registered in the electoral roll;

7) To investigate the social implications on the Sabah community following the award of blue ICs or citizenships to foreigners in the state; and

8) To investigate the number of “stateless” foreigners in Sabah given blue Identity Cards or citizenships.

In conclusion, Project IC or otherwise known as “Project M” first begun in the early nineties when Umno decided that they are unable to depend on Sabahan politicians to win their elections for BN. United Sabah National Organization (USNO) was formed as a result of this long term planning and later BERJAYA took over the reins to spearhead BN’s charge to take total control of the state by means of mass immigration and migrant naturalization processes.

Between 1970 and 2000, Sabah’s population increased by 285%, whilst Malaysia's population increased by only 113%. Furthermore, the Kadazan/Dusun/Murut people

increased by 236% as compared to the increase of “Other Bumiputras” by a whopping 631%.

Fact: “Senior citizens (in Sabah) who lose their MyKads are given the MyPR as replacement”…as quoted by NRD Kota Kinabalu.

Fact: Senior citizens in Sabah who has to mandatory change their blue ICs (to MyKads) will sometimes be given the MyPR as replacement. NRD Kota Kinabalu fails to specify under what circumstances or situation will this occur.

Fact: 65,000 Filipino refugees were issued the IMM13 refugee documents in the 1970s.

Fact: In 2008, the federal government stated that 65,000 Filipino refugees were again issued the IMM13 refugee documents that year (coincident?)

Fact: Children of intermarriages between local natives are classified as sino-indigenous and not indigenous people. However, children of marriages between “Other Bumiputras” and foreigners are automatically Bumiputras.

Fact: Any foreigner qualifies for the MyKad if he or she exhibit mastery of Bahasa Malaysia.

These foreigners should however show evidence that they qualify to be classified under the “Other Bumiputra” category first…

If Malaysians of Chinese descent who is born here are called Pendatangs, what do you call those who were born elsewhere but just obtained their MyKads because they can speak BM?