Longtime anti-illegal immigration activist Dr Chong Eng Leong is throwing in the towel on his efforts to shame the federal government into admitting that MyKads have been issued to illegal immigrants in Sabah.

suhakam roundtable kk sabah 020806 dr chong eng leong "The federal government continues to hide behind blanket denials," said Dr Chong ( left ) in announcing a rethink in his long-running campaign. "My successful court battle in Likas in 1999 - and book, ' Lest we forget' , are a matter of public record."

The futility of his previous efforts, according to Dr Chong, stems from the fact that the illegal immigrants and not Sabahans are the electoral ‘fixed deposits' for BN and Umno in particular. "

So, why should they do something about cleaning up the electoral rolls and stopping the issuance of MyKads to illegal immigrants?"

He was lending support at a specially convened press conference late yesterday in Kota Kinabalu to another member of the medical community, Dr Felix Chong Kat Fah, a former director of government hospitals in Beluran and Pitas.

The latter was the target of the NRD's (National Registration Department) wrath this week after he charged that illegal immigrants with MyKads are overwhelming public healthcare facilities and services in Sabah.

The NRD has denied issuing MyKads to illegal immigrants in a statement carried by the local media yesterday.

"We have now come to a point where a change of government is the only way to clean up the MyKad mess in Sabah and weed out the illegal immigrants from locals," said Dr Chong. "This will be the mother of all issues in the next general election."

Both doctors are convinced that a massive turnout of Sabahans during the general election can help defeat the votes of the illegal immigrants on the electoral rolls and send Umno packing from Sabah.

This would be preceded by a concerted campaign by opposition parties including Dr Chong's Parti Keadilan Rakyat to get Sabahans of age to register as voters.

They are confident that the evidence that they have since gathered through court cases, published material and their personal experience, will provide enough ammunition for campaign material during the next general election.

Mahathir has a lot to explain

An opposition-held state government in Sabah, continued Dr Chong, can initiate a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the issuance of MyKads to illegal immigrants in the state.

NONE He pointed out that former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad ( left) in particular had a lot of explaining to do on the matter but chose to remain silent despite his name cropping up regularly in court cases, books and media reports.

"As Democratic Action Party (DAP) stalwart Lim Kit Siang has stressed on many occasions, Dr Mahathir is very vocal on many issues but when it comes to the issuance of MyKads in Sabah, he's petrified to the point of complete silence," said Dr Chong. "Dr Mahathir is the key to this whole MyKad puzzle in Sabah involving illegal immigrants and the extraordinary population increase in the state."

Dr Chong revisited the case of a Pakistani - Salman Majid - who's currently suing the Immigration Department and the Federal Government in Kuala Lumpur for wrongful detention.

This is despite evidence in court that he came from his motherland and obtained a MyKad in Sabah after claiming to have been born in the state.

He was detained for 199 days in an Immigration Detention Centre in Sepang. Salman was arrested at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in March 2005 while on his way to Pakistan.

harris mohd salleh former sabah chief minister He was released from detention, it transpired in court, after former Sabah Chief Minister Harris Salleh ( right ) sent a letter to the Home Ministry confirming that he had been a "loyal voter". Harris also testified in court on Salman's behalf.

This led to him winning his case against the federal government for "wrongful revocation of his citizenship". He was represented by lawyer Karpal Singh of the DAP.

Dr Chong recalled that before the case was heard in court, the director-general of the NRD had announced that they revoked Salman's citizenship in 2001 because he falsified his statutory declaration by saying that he was born in Sabah when he applied for his Malaysian identity card in Ranau in 1984, when in fact he was born in Pakistan.

He alleged that the reason why the Government had lost the case was because it wanted to cover up the systematic granting of citizenship to illegal immigrants by giving them identity cards, and subsequently the MyKad through the alleged 'IC Projek' or 'Project M'.

"If the authorities had produced evidence in court on foreigners obtaining identity cards through false statutory declarations, then it will affect hundred of thousands." he asserted.

He then alleged the federal government deliberately failed to produce further evidence in court and lost the case against Salman.

Filipino refugees

Another example from Dr Chong, was the case of two Filipino refugees who followed their parents to Sabah and later obtained their Malaysian identity card through the Project IC. This was widely reported in a local broadsheet English daily in 2007.

Their identity cards also stated that they were born in Sabah "but they admitted in the newspaper interview that they were born in the Philippines".

Other instances cited included the 1998 Public Inquiry on new voters for the Likas constituency, judgment of the Likas election petition in 1999, and the discovery of foreigners in possession of MyKads in Keningau in June 2002 when applications for the MyKad had not opened in Sabah.

Dr Felix's experience with illegal immigrants having MyKads comes from his own recent experience in government service. He asserted that he had first hand information as the director for Beluran Hospital from 2001 to 2003 and for Pitas Hospital from 2007 to 2008.

He quit to head Sabah DAP's Medical and Health Bureau.

"Any government medical staff can also testify that our hospital and health services are overloaded with foreigners," stressed Dr Felix. "We can tell that these people, whether they have the MyKad or otherwise, are not Malaysians. Their appearance, size and speech give them away."

Taking up the cudgels on the issue, Dr Felix charged that medication is in short supply as one result and patients in many cases are being told to get their own supply from private pharmacies.

He urged the State Health Department (SHD) to come forward and clarify the situation instead of remaining silent. It was not immediately clear what the SHD can be expected to do about the situation which, according to Dr Felix, appears to have gone out of control.