Does Sabah matter to Mahathir?

This came out yesterday in the Daily Express ….http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/read/3121/does-sabah-matter-to-mahathir-/

Also see HERE

Published on: Sunday, August 11, 2019

I REFER to recent reports on the involvement of National Registration Department (NRD) personnel in the alleged issuance of documents to illegal immigrants all over Sabah.

Your report about a NRD staff being arrested in Semporna where several of the State Government’s leaders, including the Chief Minister, Deputy Home Minister under whom the NRD is answerable to and Tourism Minister, not to mention key Sabah police personnel come from, is shocking.

Surely these leaders would wish for these goings-on to be exposed. But what was strange was that the public would not have known what was going on if not for a concerned member who complained about being asked to pay RM3,500 for a birth certificate and RM6,000 for a Mykad, according to Sabah Deputy Police Commissioner Datuk Zaini Jass.

Then we had a woman NRD Assistant Registrar being charged with making a fake identification card. Although she was charged with making a single document, only God knows how many may have obtained theirs through her treasonous action, if she is truly guilty and has claimed trial.

Recently, we had another woman dropping the name of the Semporna-hailed Deputy Home Minister in her scheme to allegedly defraud foreigners hoping to obtain identification documents through fraud.

That case was mysteriously struck off the Central Monitoring System of the courts until members of the public complained to your paper as to why nothing was heard about the case when it was supposed to have been brought up for mention.

Despite the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Illegal Immigrants (RCI), it is sad that Sabah – and only Sabah – seems to be the State with the worst record of foreigners becoming Malaysians through fraud. 

This does not add confidence in Sabahans that the Federal Government is doing its best since the same horrors keep happening even though we threw out the hated Umno-cum-Barisan Nasional at the urging of Tun Dr Mahathir when he was in the opposition. 

Why is he not seen to be doing anything to save Sabah that was already damaged by the Project IC which even the RCI acknowledged for all intents and purposes existed after the PBS pullout from the BN he led then in 1990. There were also complaints that the State was ignored on the appointment of the new UMS Vice Chancellor, the exit tax and introduction of Jawi writing in school.

We cannot entirely blame Dr Mahathir as being 94 and doing his best day and night to put things right. But the enforcement agencies, notably the NRD, is a shame. They seem to have done nothing to repair the damage caused by their staff in the past, many of who have even been arrested under the ISA for it.

When the Home Ministry recently announced a voluntary repatriation programme only peninsula was mentioned Sabah leaders had to beg to be included. Why when Sabah has the most illegals who can make the Sabah claim come true in the future if allowed to stay on. It is a good thing we Sabahans can still rely on the police to do a good job and probably they were motivated by a new role model IGP who has been bold and a new-look MACC who recently spoke of arrests in Sabah and Sarawak being imminent. We salute these good people in uniform, but not the NRD.

Your paper reported sometime back about scores of immigrants flocking to a private clinic in Telipok where a doctor who was also a Commissioner of Oaths was not dispensing medicine but actually attesting the Statutory Declarations of foreigners to submit to the NRD.

The management of the clinic concerned later disassociated with what he was doing and said that it sacked the doctor after investigating the matter and found it to be true. It is widely reported, thanks to social media, that PTIs (illegals) are flocking in droves to some places around the state capital to obtain a certain form and for attestation of the same.

It is believed that the said form was produced by these Commissoners of Oath to accordingly provide personal particulars of the person in question to ease inquiries from relevant parties such as when seeking medical care, etc. The irony is how an undocumented person or PTI be allowed to make a Statutory Declaration for lack of identification papers? Alternatively, it doesn’t make much sense for someone with proper identification papers e.g. with IC or Passport to need such a Statutory Declaration?

Even though this doctor was sacked, it is not the end of the matter. The body overseeing Commissioners of Oath in Sabah should revoke his status and of others who abuse the SD powers given to them. 

But sadly this body is keeping quiet about the whole thing even though some Sabah Law Society exco members are also holding positions in this NGO. Your paper should ask what are they doing about crooked Commissioners of Oath in their midst.

I am also wondering as to what happened to the many Statutory Declarations using that certain form and attested by the said doctor and other Commissioner of Oaths. And why only in Sabah, the use of SDs have been allowed for late registration of births, etc. I understand even Sarawak does not allow this.

Finally, we hope that this letter will come to the attention of our beloved Prime Minister since the national newspapers hardly carry anything about these serious issues concerning Sabah.

Concerned