It is like a 'cancer eating into the whole flesh' - that's how a social activist describes the uncontrollable influx of 'unruly foreigners' into Sabah and their coming into possession of identity cards by dubious means and becoming Malaysian citizens in the process.

Consumer Association of Sabah and Labuan (Cash) secretary-general Joshua Kong ( left ) said only the setting up of a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) would cure the 'cancer' caused by the issuance of such identity cards to tens of thousands of foreigners under National Registration Department's special exercises codenamed PI (referring to Sabah under the rule of chief ministers Mustapha Harun and Harris Salleh) and Project 2 (referring to the directive of former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad).

In his paper presented at the Suhakam Roundtable Discussion on 'Human Rights and Citizenship - Its Impact of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights' in Kota Kinabalu on Monday, Kong said Sabahans have a 'massive crisis' on their hands because of the presence of large numbers of illegal immigrants, many of them are walking around with fake ICs.

Cash, which also spearheads the campaign to garner 100,000 signatures to petition the King to set up a royal commission of inquiry, had lodged a police report at Karamunsing police station for investigation to be carried out into those involved in carrying out the so-called Project IC/cum Project Mahathir.

(The signature campaign will end on August 15 and the organisers are hoping to hand it over to the King during the National Day celebrations in Sabah).

Root causes of EPIC

Cash and other NGOs want the federal government to revoke the ICs and citizenships of those who had obtained them through fraudulent means.

Kong said: "We have identified the problem in the context of human rights, citizenship, illegal immigrants and stateless people in Sabah and also found the root causes of EPIC or foreigners holding Malaysian ICs."

"It is very urgent for the royal commission of inquiry to be set up to resolve the IC issue and related pressing immigration, social, economic, financial, human rights and political issues.

Kong said if Mahathir likened the selling of the sand to Singapore as tantamount to jeopardising the sovereignty of Malaysia, giving away a million or more ICs to foreigners was even worst as it was serious endangering national security and sovereignty.

It is estimated there are 1.75 million foreigners in Sabah, including about 750,000 illegal immigrants or those holding forged documents such a fake ICs or without any documents at all.