RCI on Sabah: Another of those Much Thunder No Rain Initiatives.

The issue of Project IC especially for Sabah has been the bane of Sabah politics for years. One Sabahan friend told me- we don’t have to reinvent a wheel to demolish UMNO and BN in Sabah. The powder keg of the issue that will blow UMNO and BN to pieces is the Project IC issue.

It was simply a race centered policy used by UMNO and BN to restructure the ethnic set up in Sabah. The majority suddenly finds itself to be marginalized and diluted. It has come to that because BN and its surrogate partners in Sabah want to subjugate the people of Sabah. Sabahans better wake up- this issue is about the sovereignty of your state. When Sabah and Sarawak became part of Malaysia, it was promised that Sabah and Sarawak shall not surrender their sovereignty. That promise has been abused and Sabah has lost its sovereignty.

Sabah is part of Malaysia, so why should it be given sovereignty? Sovereignty is a right owned by an independent nation. Borneo WAS an independent nation having separate identity from Malaya then. It can exercise it sovereignty because it was promised so. Otherwise, the entry of Borneo into Malaysia was just part of the neo-colonialism that so rankled Sukarno when Malaysia was about to emerge.

Only now Najib wants to address the issue. Even then, as he announces yet another of his laundry list of initiatives, Mahathir is already hitting out at him. The RCI is a waste of time. These illegal immigrants deserve to become Malaysian citizens because they have stayed here long enough and can speak Malay. Mahathir is admitting that it was he who started the project IC simply because he wanted to alter the demographics in Sabah. His purpose was to ensure UMNO and its surrogate allies in Sabah remain in power.

UMNO and BN have ruled Sabah for so many years. Yet the state remains at the bottom of the prosperity ladder. Yet each year, we hear of gargantuan allocations to develop Sabah. Where has the money gone? The money has gone into the pockets of the UMNO and BN elites who constitute probably 5% of the Sabah population. The money has gone into the pockets of Safie apdal so that when he goes back to Semporna, he can sit imperially in that oversized chair and ATM the people who queue up to meet him.

Sabah is one the states in Malaysia that has oil, yet it remains one of the poorest. Not Kelantan, but Sabah is the poorest. Not Kelantan under PAS rule, but Sabah under UMNO and BN Rule. The rule of thumb then is, whenever UMNO and BN rule, the state becomes impoverished and if the state doesn’t become one, it becomes the piggy bank for UMNO and BN also on the way to becoming impoverished.

So Najib’s terms of reference for the RCI on illegal Sabah immigrants is just a political ruse. First, the RCI will have 6 months to do the job. The immediate step is to exclude those who got IC through the project from voting in the GE13. These people shouldn’t be difficult to identify.

Under the Najib Initiative, there will be no report until about March 2013 and no action a few months after March 2013. By that time, GE13 will be over. The inclusion of 2 million + illegal immigrants in the electoral roles would have had the desired effect on the GE results, that is, help BN win illegally in Sabah. The victory must by definition be illegal because it is secured so. If that takes place in 6 months’ time, the people of Sabah have no need to support BN. the solution to your problem can come with a new government.

Surprisingly, the terms of reference did not include 2 most important terms: determine who was primarily responsible for this sad state of affairs for so long, and why nothing was done to rectify it earlier; and to recommend immediate steps to be taken to delete all illegal immigrants from the electoral roll and to cancel the illegally issued citizenships. This is what the people of Sabah and Malaysia want.

The much heralded terms of reference in the end amounted to all thunder and no rain event. One of the terms stated: “To investigate whether immigrants in Sabah holding blue identity cards, temporary identification receipts (blue) or citizenship documents had been illegally registered into the electoral rolls.”

Now hear this: If those people have been granted citizenship and blue ICs, then registering them in the electoral roll could not be illegal. It would only be illegal if they were first registered to vote before getting citizenship.

We want to know on what basis were these people given citizenship and whether they have acquired citizenship in accordance to the laws of Malaysia.

To investigate these anomalies, you have to set up a RCI consisting of the legal luminaries chosen?  The most vocal about this issue are the Pakatan people and the right thinking leaders of Sabah. Why are these people not included in the commission? This commission should be bi-partisan not another appendage of UMNO and BN which won’t achieve the results actually desired by Sabahans.