RCI DELAY IN OFFICIAL APPOINTMENTS

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sabah has questioned the delay in the official appointment of the commissioners of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrant problems.

PKR Sabah Security, Immigration and Electoral Reform Bureau Chief, Dr Chong Eng Leong, urged the Prime Minister to explain the reason that there is still no Agong's edict on the appointment of the commissioners after the Terms of Reference were announced more than three weeks ago.

"Is the time frame of six months too long for the RCI to its job?" he asked.

Chong said that after going through the TOR in detail, he believed the RCI was "only a political gimmick".

He claimed certain elements in the Barisan Nasional (BN) government deliberately gave away blue ICs and citizenship to foreign migrants and was pressured to set up this RCI.

The time frame of six months to complete investigations with tonnes of files from the National Registration Department alone was not enough, he said.

"The TORs are restrictive, only investigative, no jurisdiction to even recommend except on one item. If they are going to investigate who were the people involved, who was the mastermind, in this treacherous and treasonous act, do they have the power to recommend legal actions?

"Are they going to investigate into the purpose of giving ICs and citizenship to foreign migrants (as discovered from the KL High Court records as stated above)?" he asked.

He said the immediate concern arising from the TOR was when proven that electoral rolls are tainted with non-qualified voters.

"Then there is the serious consequence of declaring the coming election results null and void.

This could be the ultimate reason for BN not to proceed with this RCI before the 13th General Election.

"Sabah's electoral rolls are estimated to have around 200,000 non-qualified voters in the current Sabah rolls of 950,000 voters," he claimed.