The Sabah State Cabinet wants the relevant authorities to take drastic action to resolve once and for all the issue of illegal immigrants in the state, after the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) blamed “corrupt officials” and illegal syndicates for the state’s burgeoning foreigner population.
Chief Minister Musa Aman said the State Cabinet, with consensus, welcomed the release of the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on the issue of illegal immigrants in Sabah and supported the recommendations made to resolve the issue.
“THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT UNDER PRIME MINISTER DATO SRI NAJIB TUN RAZAK HAS FULFILLED ITS PROMISE ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE RCI AND TO RELEASE ITS FINDINGS,” he said after being briefed on the RCI findings and recommendations at the weekly State Cabinet meeting today.
He said these findings have been released by an independent panel that has heard and scrutinised the testimonies of multiple witnesses.
Musa said based on these findings, it was discovered that there were wrongdoings committed by individuals for monetary gain.
“These grievous acts were committed by irresponsible individuals who were greedy and they have been brought before the law for their crimes,” he said.
In moving forward post-RCI, he said it was important for concrete measures to be taken to ensure that these acts do not recur and any efforts by any syndicates that could undermine the sovereignty of this nation must be dismantled and face the long arm of the law.
He said the State Cabinet therefore welcomed the recommendations to set up a PERMANENT COMMITTEE on Foreigners to be co chaired by Home Affairs Minister, Datuk Zahid Hamidi and himself as well as a Working Committee on Foreigners to be chaired by Deputy Chief Minister, Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan.
“We also call on relevant Departments and agencies to overcome any weaknesses and tighten any loopholes within their respective structures to maintain the integrity of their respective governmental functions and the ultimate objective, which is serving the people,” he said.
In the meantime, he said the State Government would continue to work hand in hand with the Federal Government to overcome issues dealing with illegal immigrants in the state.
He said the relevant authorities such as Police, National Registration department and the Immigration Department are working closely through statewide operations such as Ops Bersepadu to flush out illegal immigrants in the state.
“It is also my hope that our counterparts in our neighboring countries will assist us in this effort by facilitating the return of their citizens to their respective countries,” he said.
Selvarajasomiah's Weblog 
“French Kiss”…..did you notice how they carried out their final assault on the kosher super market? It looked as if a group of villagers, with lathis in their hands, had assembled to catch a thief. In which police academy do they teach to assemble at the gates ( dozens of them at a single spot) and confront a heavily armed militant? A single grenade could take them out all.
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gendarmes,
French police, from my experience there, are pretty good. Yeah, they may not be as good as bobbies or American police, but I wouldn’t compare them to our goons in Malaysia.
You are right, though. They definitely goofed up here.
The biggest problem (in this case) with France is, their belief in liberty, when it comes to immigration from muslim countries.
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Mr Selva a little diversion from Sabah to Charlie Hebdo Paris Shooting.
French cops seem as incompetent as ours. They took days to track down and liquidate three heavily armed terrorists. The terrorists even taunted them by leaving an ID card behind to let them know who they were. They were finally surrounded at two locations with hundreds of heavily armed and body armoured gendarmes. Even then one woman terrorist escaped from the cordon.
And what is even more shocking is that all those who took part in terrorising Paris were trained in Yemen and known Al Qaeda fighters and also known to the French authorities. Yet they were running free.
The fact that about a thousand French born Muslim youth have joined the ISIS also tells us that something is seriously wrong in France. Consider this, only few Malaysian youths joined ISIS.
But this I can say about the French police, they looked great in their black dungarees, body armour and variety of weapons. If looks could kill, then it must be the gendarmes who would be tops.
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“me” hello,What only 315 people ???? Is this wayang kulit……??? stop acting, it’s window shopping fr Sabah to show something is being done, what about the thousand holding illegal ics will u also round them up??? bullshit!
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The Federal government should be totally committed to eradicate the alien crisis caused by BN when Mahathir was the PM as well as the mastermind of the ill-fated Project IC. Most of these foreigners are now living in Sabah legally and they can and vote for BN. That begs one important concern-will these illegals turn violent??
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It is starting, in Sandakan last night.
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2014/12/28/anti-illegal-immigrant-operation-launched-in-sandakan/
SANDAKAN: A large scale integrated operation to curb illegal immigrants was launched around Sandakan early this morning.
According to Sabah State Secretary Sukarti Wakiman, the operation which was coordinated by the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCom) was based on the Royal Commission of Inquiry’s report on illegal immigrants in Sabah presented at the National Security Committee’s meeting recently.
“The state government views the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah seriously and this operation is the beginning of a number of drastic measures that we will be taking to curb this problem. Our intention is to free Sabah from illegal immigrants as aspired by the local community in the state,” he said in a statement here today.
Sukarti said the same operation would also be carried out in other districts, especially those under the Eastern Sabah Safety Zone (ESSZone).
He also urged the local public to cooperate with authorities and reminded that stern action would be taken against those who abet or protect illegal immigrants.
Sukarti said that during the operations since 4am today, some 315 people were detained, of whom 130 were sent to the Sandakan temporary detention centre for further action by the Immigration Department; three others were remanded for drug offences. The rest were released after they were able to prove their identities.
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http://www.tv14.my/2014/12/04/rci-sabah-pendatang-asing-berdepan-tindakan-undang-undang/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
Pendatang Asing Bakal Didakwa
KOTA KINABALU: Pendatang haram yang mendapat kewarganegaraan melalui ‘pintu belakang’ akan berdepan tindakan pembatalan dokumen dan juga akan didakwa, kata Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail.
Peguam Negara berkata mereka yang menggunakan dokumen sokongan palsu untuk mendapatkan sijil kelahiran dan kad pengenalan Malaysia melalui sindiket yang mempunyai hubungan dengan Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN) akan berdepan dengan tindakan undang-undang.
“Ada yang menggunakan dokumen berkanun yang ditandatangani oleh ketua kampung untuk mendapatkan dokumen Malaysia yang asli dan mereka akan dikenakan tindakan,” kata Abdul Gani.
Tugas mengenal pasti golongan ini akan dipertanggungjawabkan kepada jawatankuasa kerja mengenai warga asing (yang dipengerusikan oleh Timbalan Ketua Menteri Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan) yang juga akan membuat cadangan kepada sekretariat tetap warga asing di Sabah, yang dipengerusikan bersama oleh Menteri Dalam Negeri dan Ketua Menteri, katanya.
Abdul Gani berkata adalah menyalahi undang-undang bagi sesiapa sahaja yang mendapatkan kerakyatan Malaysia melalui dokumen palsu dan tindakan boleh diambil terhadap mereka walaupun kes tersebut sudah berlaku dalam tempoh dua atau tiga dekad lamanya.
Terdahulu, Ketua Setiausaha Negara Tan Sri Ali Hamsa berkata pihak berkuasa pada tahun 1995 telah mengambil tindakan terhadap ahli-ahli sindiket itu termasuk menangkap beberapa bekas pengarah JPN yang berkhidmat di Sabah.
Beliau berkata orang asing telah membeli kad pengenalan Malaysia daripada individu dan sindiket yang mempunyai hubungan dengan pegawai JPN Sabah.
“Ia (menyediakan kad pengenalan) telah dilakukan oleh sindiket atau individu untuk keuntungan kewangan. Tidak ada motif politik, ” kata beliau sambil menambah projek yang dipanggil ‘Projek IC’ itu dilakukan oleh sindiket.
Semasa siasatan itu, beberapa saksi mendakwa beribu-ribu kad pengenalan diberikan kepada pendatang tanpa izin yang kemudiannya menjadi pengundi manakala anggota polis yang menyiasat kes memberi keterangan bahawa ia dilakukan untuk keuntungan kewangan.
Ketika ditanya sama ada status pilihan raya sebelum ini kini diragui kerana daftar pemilih telah dipenuhi dengan bukan warganegara, Abdul Gani berkata senarai daftar pengundi secara dibersihkan oleh Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya secara berterusan.
Beliau berkata kira-kira 78,340 nama telah dipadam dari daftar pemilih selama ini, sambil menambah bahawa angka itu tidak memberi kesan kepada keputusan pilihan raya.
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http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/three-things-we-learned-from-the-sabah-rci?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
Three things we learned from: The Sabah RCI
KOTA KINABALU, Dec 4 — Before yesterday’s revelations, Sabahans had waited over four decades for answers to why and how their beloved state has been overrun by foreigners who, among others, are blamed for the rise of social, economic and security problems.
Natives born and bred in the “Land below the Wind” have demanded for years that the government explain the truth behind claims that corrupt politicians were responsible for the state’s burgeoning foreigner population and that the covert operation dubbed “Projek IC” was the cause of Sabah’s changing demographics.
The 1980s “Projek IC”, many have alleged, was responsible for the abnormal spike in Sabah’s population, where foreigners now make up nearly 30 per cent of the state’s 3.12 million populace.
As such, when Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced the formation of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) in 2012 to examine the issue, often described as the “mother of all problems” by local politicians, there was hope that the effort would finally sate their quest for the truth.
But the excitement was short-lived.
Yesterday, at the release of the RCI report, two years after the panel’s formation, the sigh that Sabahans heaved was not one of relief but of incredulity.
After a nine month-hearing, testimonies from 211 witnesses and more than a year’s worth of delays, the royal panel only made one recommendation: That a permanent secretariat be set up to tackle Sabah’s illegal immigrants problem.
The panel, despite acknowledging that “Projek IC” had in all “probability” existed, said the initiative was not politically-driven as initially claimed, but likely the fault of corrupt syndicates that handed out identification cards to illegals to make a buck or two.
Due to limitations in its terms of reference, the panel made no mention of the culprits involved or recommendation of punitive action.
The panel then ended its lengthy 366-page report with a postscript that said it only has the power to “inquire” and “make findings”, while any further action is up to the government.
“All it takes is the political will,” it said.
Here are the three biggest takeaways from the Sabah RCI:
1.Sabahans are not convinced by the RCI
As Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders repeatedly commended the panel’s findings yesterday, many others expressed scorn at what they said was an anti-climatic announcement.
Speaking for the masses of Kadazans in Sabah, Penampang MP Darell Leiking lambasted the government for wasting taxpayer’s money on the RCI, only to tell Sabahans things they already knew.
Internet users, in turn, reacted with anger and disbelief that there was no acknowledgement or resolution on the issues they were facing. For example, there was nary a mention of voter fraud in the RCI report — the very reason that most Sabahans believe was the cause of the influx of illegal immigrants and their instant “Malaysianisation”.
And even though it is known that the terms of reference did not include naming and blaming the cause of the problems, calling it “a profit-driven” move by corrupt syndicates with no mention of political agenda only served to incense many natives who have watched the demographic landscape of Sabah change drastically over the years.
“Honestly, would any of the BN Sabah component party members, who have no pecuniary interest at all in the party apart from the genuine love towards Sabah, believe the findings of the RCI? No one will”, Leiking said.
2.The authorities are good at defending themselves
When fielding questions from the media at the press conference to announce the findings yesterday, Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Ali Hamsa excelled in deflecting potentially-controversial questions from reporters.
When asked what took so long for the report to be made public, and what is the guarantee of the authenticity of the report, he succinctly replied that he guaranteed there were no edits and that the document was legit.
Faced with questions on how admittedly falsified identities had tainted electoral results, Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail, who was also present at the reveal, calmly responded that the voter registration was clean, after removing “many” names, but that the number was negligible and did not affect results.
However, witnesses during the public hearing had claimed between 80,620 and “at least 200,000” names in the electoral roll were not supposed to be there. Some of the seats lost by the Opposition during the last elections were as little as 44 votes by BN-Kiulu’s Datuk Joniston Bangkuai.
3.Sabahans’ wait for real answers to continue
It is obvious to anyone that a problem of this magnitude and which has been part of a society for generations will not be solved with a report, not matter how royal.
It is not as simple as deporting every illegal immigrant back to their “home country”, withdrawing all ICs illegally issued to the group, or absorbing them into society.
Each presents its own benefits and challenges, either mechanism, societal or implementation, but none will absolutely address the issue.
The permanent secretariat, jointly headed by the state chief minister and home minister, is the commission’s way of providing a platform to address each concern separately and holistically, but it is the management committee, to be headed by an “independent professional of the highest integrity not involved in politics” that is bestowed with “extensive powers” to deliberate on and make recommendations to the secretariat.
Add in the “working committee” headed by Sabahan statesman Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan and it is apparent that more researches, studies, consultations must be done before any move can be made that can again, permanently alter’s Sabah’s cultural landscape.
But Sabahans, while famed for their laid back attitude, are getting very impatient.
Society is changing, and they fear their culture and their rights are diminishing.
They’ve been waiting for a change for decades but after yesterday, it appears that their wait is far from over.
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http://www.malaysia-today.net/rci-report-former-igp-we-spotted-it-in-1990s/
(The Star) – Former Inspector-General of Police Tun Hanif Omar recalled that an Indonesian was nabbed with a Malaysian identity card a week after new security features were introduced.
He said the case happened in the 1990s when currency printer Thomas de la Rue was given the contract to supply new ICs with “enhanced security features”, but police arrested the Indonesian illegal immigrant with the new card barely a week after the launch of the new documents.
“It had been lost by the owner and the Indonesian’s details had been inserted into it.
“The then Bukit Aman CID director Datuk Zaman Khan reported this in one of my police directors’ morning conferences and the matter was also reported to the Home Ministry,” he told The Star in text messages from London where he is on holiday.
He said a de la Rue representative was invited to brief police chiefs on the new cards with unbreakable safety features at an Interpol regional conference in Mongolia in 1993.
“I immediately questioned the claim, and brought up that one case of failure we had discovered in Kuala Lumpur.
“The company’s representative explained that Malaysia did not buy sufficient safety features to preclude successful tampering,” he said.
Hanif said the Government should have set up the RCI earlier so that the ramifications of the problem could have been exposed and dealt with swiftly.
“I wonder how many of these ICs were genuine documents with genuine particulars, and how many were genuine documents with false entries?” he questioned.
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the RCI’s findings on the issue of Sabah’s immigrants has exonerated the Federal Government and the Home Ministry of any involvement in the so-called “Project IC”.
He added the report showed the Government’s uncompromising stand in the matter, having detained a number of Immigration and National Registration Department (NRD) officers under the ISA in connection with the issue.
“We have never denied that some officers were colluding with syndicates,” he said when contacted yesterday.
He added that the NRD should make an effort to track down those with fake ICs.
“Foreigners who willingly accepted the fake ICs should be stripped of citizenship and deported to their home countries.
“The police and the Immigration Department should also track down the syndicates behind the distribution of the fake ICs,” he added.
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Can anyone confirm if this is just a “Commission of Inquiry” and NOT RCI “ROYAL COMMISSION OF INQUIRY”? Why was this not tabled in PARLIAMENT or Sabah State Assembly? Something is not right!
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