Sabah opposition strongman Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan has warned the federal government that the MyKad issue in the state is a time bomb incessantly ticking away to doom. The end result could be the disintegration of the Malaysian federation.

NONE “The time bomb theory is not far-fetched if the original communities in Sabah feel that there is no security for them and no future for their generations to come,” said Jeffrey, the PKR vice-president.

“The MyKad is an all too common document carried by illegal immigrants in Sabah at the expense of locals.”

He was giving his take on the arrest of an Indonesian mastermind over the weekend with thousands of MyKad, driving licences and other personal documents.

The Indonesian, according to authorities, has nine previous convictions but had still managed to continue his syndicate’s business undetected.

This is not the first time that such a syndicate has come to the attention of the authorities, said Kitingan.

“Much damage would have been done by the time the authorities move reluctantly against such syndicates.”

He also asked what action has been taken against the numerous MyKad syndicates uncovered in the past, noting that there have been no reports of cards issued by these syndicates having been recovered and destroyed or their holders prosecuted.

“To add insult to injury, thousands of holders have been registered as voters in Sabah by a certain political party. None of them have been removed from the electoral rolls,” claims Kitingan.

“This is no secret. It has been well covered in court cases...and by numerous police reports.”

Jeffrey also brought up the recent instance of a foreign national with a MyKad who is now suing the immigration department for ‘wrongful detention’. The foreigner has claimed that many Indians and Pakistanis have been given MyKads.

Impact on locals

Issues involving the MyKad have caused genuine misery to Sabahans, said Jeffrey.

He cited a case in Keningau where an individual could not get married because another person - presumably an illegal immigrant - has the same MyKad number.

In Kota Belud, a senior citizen was refused welfare aid because her MyKad number was also ‘shared’ by two other ‘Malaysians’.

There are also many cases of Sabahans finding themselves bankrupt after their MyKad numbers were used by illegal immigrants, according to Jeffrey.

identity card mykad change of religion or faith He alleged that MyKad scams involve bogus native chiefs who attest, for a fee, statutory declarations and late birth registrations by illegal immigrants.

Kitingan called on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to “cut out the empty rhetoric and meaningless gimmicks from his politics for once” and act decisively on serious issues of the day.

He urged, for starters, that the federal government agrees to the long-standing demand for a Royal Commission of Inquiry on the national registration department (NRD).

A federal cabinet committee headed by Bernard Giluk Dompok, it was noted, was headed in this direction but had to be disbanded not so long ago when the NRD and Immigration Department in particular refused to co-operate.