YOURSAY 'Project IC was a nefarious scheme to inundate Sabah with Muslim immigrants from Kalimantan and the Philippines.'

Mahathir justifies Sabah population boom

Moon Rat: Sabah's population was 651,304 in 1970 and grew to 929,299 a decade later. But in the two decades following 1980, the state's population rose significantly by a staggering 1.5 million people, reaching 2,468,246 by 2000.

Media reports said that as of 2010, this number has grown further to 3.12 million, with foreigners making up a sizeable 27 percent, or 889,799, of the population.

Cancer Stick: Sabahans have a genuine fear that they will one day be outnumbered by immigrants.

With the 13th general election expected soon, the clamour for a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to investigate the issue of illegal immigrants in Sabah allegedly granted citizenship is getting louder.

The call for the RCI was loud during the recent annual congress of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) and Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and it is also expected to feature prominently at the forthcoming Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) meeting.

PBS is the second-largest BN component party in Sabah after Umno, while Upko, a PBS splinter party, is an equally important partner, the third largest.

BN leaders considered Sabah its ‘fixed deposit' after the state BN won 24 of the 25 parliamentary seats in the last general election. PBS president Joseph Pairin Kitingan told deputy BN chairperson and Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, that the fear that foreigners may one day outnumber locals was genuine and merited utmost attention from the federal government.

PBS has been raising the issue since its inception in 1985. While supporting ongoing initiatives taken by the government to address the issue, delegates to its party congress felt that the root of the problem needs to be identified and dealt with once and for all.

Upko was even bolder. Stopping short of threatening to quit the coalition if the request was not granted, its president Bernard Dompok said it was pointless to be part of the federal cabinet and the government if the core struggle of the party was not given due consideration.

Concern is mounting about the unusual growth of Sabah's population over the last 20 years, particularly between 1990 and 2005. Women, Family and Community Development Ministry secretary-general Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur has recently revealed that the immigrant population in some districts in the state had already surpassed the local population.

Members of parliament and assemblypersons from both sides of the political divide as well as NGOs have raised the matter continuously. PBS, Upko and several NGOs have also submitted memorandums containing ‘proof' of illegal immigrants being issued with MyKad to the relevant authorities.

To be fair, the federal government had introduced various measures to overcome the problem, such as launching massive operations to round up illegal immigrants and the setting up of a cabinet committee in 2008 to find a solution to the issue, but it has remained unresolved.

In the late 1990s, several government officers were arrested under the Internal Security Act for allegedly being involved in issuing MyKad to foreigners through dubious means, but none has been charged in court.

In 2007, the government formed a parliamentary select committee (PSC) on integrity to, among others, hear testimonies of some of the detainees, but it failed to yield any proof about the existence of this ‘Project IC'.

The three Sabah parties want the issue to be resolved by the government before the next general election and for all MyKad confirmed to have been illegally issued to foreigners to be revoked immediately.

Having presented their case, Prime Minister Najib Razak have taken note of their concern and grant their request for the RCI. The term of reference shall be announced tomorrow.

Bartimaeus 2020: Project IC was a nefarious scheme devised by the fascists to inundate Sabah with Muslim immigrants from Kalimantan and the Philippines. The purpose was twofold:

1) To make the indigenous people such as the Kadazans a minority in their own land.

2) To provide a convenient 'vote bank' for Umno.

The project was mainly implemented during Dr Mahathir Mohamad's administration. The sad thing is that quislings in the Sabah leadership worked hand in glove with Umno to betray the true Sabahans.

This tragic episode in our history, like the genocide against the Armenians by the Turks, must be thoroughly investigated and brought to the attention of the international community.

Mahathir and his sons are extremely rich and we ordinary Malaysians are puzzled as to how they could have accumulated their wealth legitimately. It behooves the Celup & Sons to declare their assets publicly and explain to us how they acquired them.

By the way, the fascistic agenda euphemistically called the NEP (New Economic Policy) has created an extensive class of economic parasites, i.e. freeloaders and rent collectors, people who receive large sums of money while not doing any gainful work. Which is why a person with a bunch of APs (approved permits) can own a Lamborghini while still being a petty trader.

And that is why the Ampang LRT extension project was awarded to an Umno crony at a price far above the true cost. We, the unprivileged citizens, who through our sweat and blood fund the NEP will be reckoned as suckers if we continue to tolerate the grave injustices being heaped upon us. And you can be sure that posterity will never forgive us.

ACR: So where does it stop, Mahathir? The "many Malaysians who have foreign origins" are those whose forefathers contributed to the country pre-independence.

You are infamous for claiming not to know many incidents in the past though your fingers were deep in the pie, but the fact is the numerous foreigners allowed into Sabah and given citizenship was a recent event - during your tenure as PM.

It was done to prevent Sabah from being a majority non-Muslim bumiputera state. Likewise the 20-point Agreement has been torn to shreds. Are you now proposing that so long as any foreigner speaks BM, they be given citizenship?

AngryBird: But citizenship was given to Muslims only. In Sabah, there are many Pakistanis who were given citizenship simply because they are Muslims and support Umno.

Similarly, many Indonesian and Filipino Muslims have been given citizenship too. What has Mahathir got to say about this?

Clever Voter: Dr M never fails to give a reason for whatever he has done. But he never admit his failure as no one has the guts to tell him so. Surrounded by rent-seekers and opportunists, he lives in a world of his own denial.

He will probably die this way, and so will his legacy. That's sad.

Is Dr M admitting role in Project IC?

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