Tawau police grilled Sabah PKR deputy chief Kong Hong Ming for nearly two hours yesterday over a recent National Registration Department (NRD) mobile MyKad exercise in Kampung Kalabakan Tengah 1 in the Tawau division.

Kong, a practicing lawyer and former state cabinet minister, confirmed this upon his return to "the relative safety of Kota Kinabalu today". He had to practically repeat word for word to the police what he had already stated, on the Kalabakan exercise, in the media in recent days.

"I had a call from ASP Kamaruddin inviting me to go to the police station yesterday," said Kong who happened to be in Tawau for a court case. "He said my statement was needed in response to a police report lodged against me by an Upko leader, Sylvester S Taing, in Tawau."

The gist of Kong's statement to the police was that many outsiders, all Bugis, descended on Kampung Kalabakan Tengah 1 during a recent mobile NRD exercise to register for MyKads and birth certificates.

The police were told that the villagers themselves were largely ignored in favour of the outsiders.

Authorities not probing actual allegations

Besides that, a Rela officer Messe bin Hamid acted as the "broker" in the exercise and the kampung chief, Suping Bin Ajak, collected RM50 from each outsider applicant for certifying that they were residents of the village.

Messe, a Bugis himself, is a taxi driver in Tawau when he's not in a Rela uniform. No witness or source names were disclosed to the police.

"The authorities should probe allegations that the NRD mobile exercises are largely a cover for illegal immigrants to obtain Malaysian personal documents," Kong told the police.

"Strictly speaking, I would not say that the NRD is issuing bogus MyKads, birth certificates and other documents as in fake or forged documents."

"Instead, I would specifically charge that the NRD is issuing these documents based on false declarations and fictitious particulars by applicants and their sponsors alike."

So, it's a question of semantics whether such documents from the NRD can be described as bogus documents "since the Department can always turn around and claim that any document from them is genuine".

"We are not debating Chemistry Department tests on the documents," said Kong. "It's an issue of whether a person issued such documents are legally entitled to have them."

Documents obtained under false pretenses are invalid

The PKR chief stressed that, under the Federal Constitution, those who obtained genuine documents from the NRD under false pretences - including statutory declarations - must know that their documents are invalid, null and void from the moment of their application and issue.

He further explained that he did not offer to go back and assist the police with their investigations.

However, he doesn't mind doing so if asked. In the past, such offers made by him and others were not taken up by the police "for obvious reasons".

suhakam roundtable kk sabah 020806 dr chong eng leong Kong is completely confident of the stand that he has taken on the NRD based on his personal experiences in court on the matter including election petitions and nine Suhakam (Human Rights Commission) annual reports.

A successful election petition by anti-illegal immigration activist Dr Chong Eng Leong (left) is another case in point.

The Elections Commission subsequently had the laws amended to state that no election result can be challenged in a court of law once the results have been gazetted.

Kong is surprised that the police proved to be super-efficient and sprang into action the moment Taing had lodged a report against him.

He deplored the impression created by Taing, as per his media statements, that he was more interested in the police going after him (Kong) instead of probing the MyKad scam.

"Taing is not interested in protecting the security and sovereignty of the country and Sabah rights under the Malaysia Agreement," charged Kong. "He's more interested in scoring political points against me and PKR."

Not expecting any actions to be taken

Based on his previous experiences of lodging police reports and complaining to the MACC (Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission) and the Department of Environment, Kong does not expect anything to come out of his statement to the police yesterday.

In particular, he mentioned a nearly RM600 million Sapulut-Kalabakan highway which was not tarred as required under the contract.

Yet, the Federal Government paid the contractor in full after the Public Works Department certified the highway had been satisfactorily completed.

No complaints were lodged by the PWD during the six months defect period, the police and MACC ignored several reports lodged by Kong and the company concerned has gone on to win even more and bigger contracts from the federal government.

A daughter of the Sultan of Perak, for the record, is a substantial shareholder of the company.

"They (the Tawau police) were basically going through the motions," said Kong. "However, the police report by Taing and my statement cannot be used to stop public debate on the Kalabakan exercise."

Kong explained that there's a misconception, among politicians and even police, that once a police report has been lodged on a certain matter, "public debate and comments on the matter should stop".

This is not true, he added, since it's not like a court case and the excuse that continued comments will jeopardise police investigations "does not hold water".

In short, he can only stop talking about the matter with the public once a court case has begun in proceedings. That would also give him an opportunity to re-visit unfinished similar business from the past, added Kong.

"This time the NRD is not going to get away scott-free as in the case of the Federal Government's refusal to hold a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the activities of the Department since 1963 in Sabah."