The “unusually high” number of Sabah Umno members as revealed by Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman should be investigated said State Reform Party (Star Sabah) chief Jeffrey Kitingan.

This raises all sorts of suspicions, and the technical committee on migrant management should probe this, he added.

 

Musa ( right ) said on Thursday that Sabah Umno had 536,233 members up to December 31, 2014, with 13,713 new members.

 

The number of branches in Sabah had also jumped from 5,504 to 5,540 due to the increase in new members in Sabah as a result of the hard work, commitment and dedication of the Umno divisions and their Wanita, youth and Puteri wings, he added.

 

In a statement received by Malaysiakini last night, Jeffrey said that the technical committee on migrant management should give this “unusually high number of members” a high priority and verify the Sabah Umno membership list.

 

Many could be holders of ICs that were unlawfully obtained and used to enter the electoral rolls illegally, he said.

 

The Bingkor state assemblyperson said that in 2013, it was reported that Sabah Umno had 522,519 members which was more than 54 percent of the 960,000 registered voters during the GE13 in May 2013.   

 

“This membership number is unusually high and raises all sorts of suspicions since it is higher than Umno’s stronghold of Johor and other pre-dominantly Malay states,” said Jeffrey, pointing out that the RCI report had unequivocally established in its findings that ICs and MyKads were given illegally and illegal voters were in the electoral rolls.

 

At the same time, he said it was established that Sabah Umno had a special membership taskforce headed by senior Umno Sabah leaders to recruit members with the objective of toppling the PBS ruling government in the 1990s.

 

Given that the population of Sabah grew at a phenomenal rate at that time, when the infamous Project IC was said to be in operation, that there could be as many as 1.5 million dubious Sabahans.

 

Considering the phenomenal number of Sabah Umno members, there was every basis to scrutinise them, argued Jeffrey.

 

The prime minister and deputy prime minister and other senior Umno leaders had acknowledged that the Sabah Umno members were the “fixed deposits” that had helped them retain power in Putrajaya and for Umno Sabah to head the Sabah government.

 

“A scrutiny and audit of Sabah Umno’s membership list would certainly be supported by true Sabahans eager to find out if there is any truth that many Umno members in Sabah have been given dubious ICs and made into voters for hire. 

 

“This may be one of the solutions to the illegal IC holders and illegal voters in Sabah as identified in the RCI Report,” Jeffrey suggested.

 

He said that if Sabah Umno did not agree to its membership scrutinised by the technical committee with independent supervision and monitoring, then its leaders might have something to hide.

Fake MayKads

 

Meanwhile, State National Registration director Ismail Ahmad revealed during the meet-the-people session on Wednesday that the district of Keningau had the most number of foreigners possessing fake MyKads or identity cards.

 

He said that the detection was done through ongoing operations conducted by the security forces and his department.

 

However, he did not give the number of foreigners possessing the fake ICs.

 

According to him, the latest record showed that the Sabah’s population was 3.2 million compared with 2.5 million in 2010.

 

Of the total, 700,000 were foreigners and 200,000 believed to be illegal immigrants, he said.