"Project IC" Linked To False Statutory Declaration
Sunday, 25 June 2006 (Source: Bernama)

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) secretary general Datuk Radin Malleh believes that the "Project IC" issue involving thousands of foreigners in Sabah could be linked to the issuance of false statutory declarations, allegedly backdated before 1987.

He said these foreigners took advantage of the relaxed law then to obtain Malaysian identity card (IC) by using statutory declarations which contained false information.

"Most of the contents of the statutory declarations are false... these foreigners claimed that they are locals and were born in Sabah.

"I know those statutory declarations were backdated to 1987 because such document is accepted for the purpose of applying Malaysian IC at that time. After 1987, applicants must have original certificates to support their applications for IC... these were actually their modus operandi," he told Bernama, here Sunday.

Radin was asked to comment on the statement by Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan here Saturday that a team made up of Bukit Aman dan local police had been formed to investigate an alleged scheme dubbed "Project IC" involving a former leader to issue genuine Malaysian ICs to thousands of foreigners in the state.

Musa said investigations, which also involved the National Registration Department (NRD), were under way following a report lodged by the Consumer Association of Sabah and Labuan (Cash) recently.

Cash president Datuk Patrick Sindu, acting secretary general Joshua Kong Yun Chee and Wanita Bureau Chief Hashima Abdullah, who made their joint police report at the Karamunsing police station last Wednesday, also submitted copies of newspaper cuttings, photostat copies of the cover and contents of a book entitled "IC Palsu" (Forged IC) by Mutalib. M.D.

Radin, who is also Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister's Department, said that the investigation on the matter showed the seriousness of the police in resolving the perennial problem which some people had linked to the "extra ordinary" increase in Sabah's population.

"Of course the people of Sabah welcome the police investigation and hoped the police will go to the root of the problem," he said.

In this respect, Radin said the PBS fully supported the police move as "we have reasons to believe that most of the ICs were issued illegally to these foreigners".

"I still remember that I had lodged police reports on the matter not less than 10 times, especially in the late 1990s... I have given IC numbers and names of the people involved, so we hope the police can solve this problem once and for all.

"Even though these people (foreigners) might have been in possession or holding Malaysian IC, that IC is not their right because they had obtained it using false statutory declarations," he said.

In December Last year, the then Suhakam Commissioner Prof Datuk Mohd Hamdan Adnan said the latest statistics showed the population in Sabah mysteriously increased more than four-fold from about 697,000 in 1970 to almost three million in 2004.

In comparison, neighbouring Sarawak's total population grew only from around one million to 2.3 million over the same period.

He described the situation as puzzling and that Sabahans had the right to know the contributing factors for this extraordinary increase.