By : ZURAIRI AR
KUALA LUMPUR : Former prime
minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today suggested Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s
involvement in the issuance of identity cards to illegal immigrants in Sabah
but he admitted having no proof to back his claim.
The former Prime Minister alleged
that the so-called “Project IC” might have happened without any knowledge and
orders from the top.
“(Anwar) had a hand, but in
the IC project, what happens on the ground isn’t always what the directives are
all about,” Dr Mahathir told reporters here.
“What they do on the ground
is sometimes different from the instructions that are given.”
He insisted that he has only
now heard about the “wrongful things” being done on the ground in Sabah.
“Yes, it’s his own initiative,”
replied Dr Mahathir when asked whether the exercise was on Anwar’s own
initiative.
Dr Mahathir had earlier
joked that his former deputy prime minister can sometimes be too keen for his
own good, when asked whether he had asked Anwar to handle the Project IC.
“He normally takes the
initiative himself, I don’t have to tell him. He took more initiative than I
would like him to,” Dr Mahathir said.
He however admitted that he
has no evidence admissible in court to back his allegations regarding Anwar.
“There are things you know,
but there is no documentary proof,” he added.
The veteran politician
expressed his willingness to co-operate with the royal commission of inquiry
(RCI) if required.
“I’d like to stick to the
facts,” he stressed.
He also revealed that the
government had previously taken actions against the officers found guilty of
taking things into their own hands, but admitted that it would be impossible
for a prime minister to constantly monitor every wrongdoings.
“Even if the PM is a Superman,
he really cannot have all the time to look at every single detail,” Dr Mahathir
said.
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the
country’s longest serving prime minister who was in power from 1981 to 2003,
has been accused of spearheading the so-called “Project IC”, in which
citizenship was allegedly given to immigrants in exchange for their votes.
But former Sabah Chief
Minister Tan Sri Harris Salleh, who administered the state from 1976 to 1985,
denied to the RCI the existence of “Project IC”.
Dr Mahathir told a press
conference recently that foreigners in Sabah had indeed received citizenship,
but stressed that it was “within the law”.
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