Harris, Megat Junid implicated In ‘Project IC’

KOTA KINABALU, January 23 (Borneo Post) -- Former Chief Minister Datuk Harris Salleh and ex- Deputy Home Minister Datuk Megat Junid Megat Ayub were implicated in the “Project IC” syndicate which issued Malaysian identity cards to foreigners and illegal immigrants in Sabah.

Harris and Megat Junid were mentioned by a witness in the Likas Election Petition hearing 1999, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan.

The witness, Hassnar Ebrahim, told the Election Court then that Harris and Megat Junid were supposed to meet in Hong Kong to discuss the scam.

“Hassnar had also told the court that he had met Magat Junid in Kuala Lumpur to discuss how to supply forms to the aliens so that they can apply for Malaysian ICs,” he added.

Pairin said Hassnar’s statement was contained in the hearing notes handed over by Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president Datuk Yong Teck Lee to the police recently.

Pairin who assumed the Chief Minister’s post between 1985 and 1994 when his Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) ruled the state, had said that his administration was clean then.

“Application for an identity card without the application’s birth certificate as the supporting document must first get a certification letter from a magistrate,” he told reporters at his Ministry of Rural Development office at Sembulan here yesterday.

He was commenting on Harris’ claim that PBS appointed village heads were bound and directed to follow, as well as implement the party’s open and hidden agenda in the case of certifying statutory declaration as documentary evidence to apply for ICs.

Harris has said that the Federal Government started issuing ICs in 1970 and at that time statutory declarations instead of birth certificates were and are accepted as documentary evidence.

“The long established practice in Sabah had been for village heads to sign statutory declarations stating that so and was born in Sabah. In the 19970s and early 1980s these village chiefs were appointed by the Usno and Berjaya Governments,” Harris said.

Harris claimed 90 per cent of the village heads were replaced when PBS came into power in the middle of 1980s and ordered to implement party’s directive.

“Those declarations that were made during Usno and Berjaya days are valid documents and should have remained to be so unless and until they are proven in court to be false. There is a law governing statutory declarations,” added Harris.