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Monday, January 13, 2014

Implement Similar I-Card for Non-Sabahans - Dr. Jeffrey

KOTA KINABALU -  “The federal government and Home Ministry’s plan to issue 2.5 million i-Kad to foreign workers shows the double-faced attitude and lack of seriousness and political will to solve the illegal immigrants problem in Sabah.   It only serve to confirm the Umno-led federal government’s hand in the issuance of dubious ICs and MyKads in Sabah” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief responding on the Home Ministry’s i-Kad plan for foreign workers.

The illegal immigrants and the dubious ICs have already returned to haunt Malaysians and the federal government in the Peninsula with the discovery of fake MyKads amidst serious crimes and employment of foreigners with fake MyKads as security personnel.

It will not be surprising if many of these foreigners with fake MyKads are already in the government service.

The move to issue the i-Kad with biometric security features only serve to show that the only way to resolve the dubious MyKads and ICs in Sabah is the recalling of all ICs issued in Sabah and to issue a new Sabah IC for genuine Sabahans.  This will weed out all non-Sabahans and those that have been given dubious ICs under Project IC, Ops Durian Buruk or whatever name it may be called.

It re-affirms the widespread opinion that the Umno-led federal government is not serious in tackling the problems of illegal immigrants and illegal holders of MyKads in Sabah.

It may also be a precursor to the lack of seriousness of the government to address the RCI findings.   The RCI can only have a finding that there was large scale unwarranted issuance of ICs and voting rights to illegals, many of whom can be said to be born twice, once in their country of origin and another in Sabah.

It is not likely that the Umno Sabah-led Sabah government will take any action on their own either since many of the dubious ICs issued were to Umno members and actively recruited by many current senior Umno Sabah leaders.

The unenvious task now falls on the non-Umno Sabah BN components to push their Sabah government into action to recall all ICs issued in Sabah since 1963 and to implement the issuance of a Sabah IC for genuine Sabahans and a “Non-Sabahan Resident Card” for all non-genuine Sabahans.  This way, the federal government will not be able to issue MyKads to illegals as Sabahans and they cannot be placed in the electoral rolls and used as voters for hire to keep the Umno/BN government in power.

The probability of the Umno government mis-using illegals as voters in future general election is very high if they are left to control the issuance of ICs and MyKads.   The potential voters for hire are already in place with many schools recently reporting high incidents of illegals registering as new students, some even more than local students.

“The Sabah IC is the only way to ensure that the security and sovereignty of Sabah are genuinely protected” stressed Dr. Jeffrey.

The recent more than 20 incidents of drive-by shooting and damage of business premises in Kota Kinabalu including 5-star hotels and banks shows the urgency to re-establish security in Sabah.

Ideally, the Sabah government need to regain control of immigration, national registration and security to safeguard the sovereignty of Sabah as well as the security and well-being of all Sabahan Malaysians.   This can be done with the establishment of a Sabah Homeland Security Ministry.
The i-Kad shows that the illegal immigrants problem in Sabah can be resolved with issuance of Sabah’s own registration card system.

Related news

2.3 Million Foreign Works Must Have i-Kad By Year-end - Ahmad Zahid

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 9 (Bernama) -- Some 2.3 million foreign workers must have the i-Kad, latest by the year-end, in a move to solve the problem of illegal immigrants in the country.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the i-Kad would be issued in stages according to the sectors and colour codes.

He said the i-Kad had high-technology security features such as biometric fingerprints, Nexcode and contactless chip.

"The employers or workers will have to apply for the card at RM110. The people's money will not be used for this.

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