KOTA KINABALU: Opposition leader Dr Chong Eng Leong is questioning the government for taking a long time to issue appointment letters to panel members of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on the presence of illegal immigrants in Sabah.
The Commissioners finally received their appointment letters on Sept 21, almost eight months after the Federal Cabinet decided on February 8 to set up the RCI, he said.
“Past RCIs were very quick in formulating the Terms of Reference (TOR) and getting the letters of appointment from our Agong but not this RCI on illegal immigrants, Project IC and phantom voters in Sabah,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Chong believes the Terms of Reference are only investigative and that only one term out of eight is empowered to make recommendation.
“They would not identify the parties involved, meaning Tun Dr Mahathir would be spared of any wrongdoing,” he said.
He also pointed out that the third Term is “to investigate whether the foreign migrants who have been given blue ICs, temporary identification receipts or citizenship illegally are registered in the electoral rolls”.
Chong believes that they are not empowered to find out how many of them have registered in the rolls, let alone the power to command the Election Commission to clean the rolls.
The stipulated time frame of six months only to investigate the thick files in NRD and to have open sessions in all districts in Sabah would be very taxing indeed especially with the chairman not in good health, Chong claimed.
“It just shows the insincerity of the Federal BN government to look at this treacherous issue. Najib himself personally knew about the seriousness ever since 2000. The promise of security and sovereignty of Sabah within Malaysia when North Borneo took part in the formation of Malaysia has never been kept.
“We want to save Sabah, thus save Malaysia. Pakatan Rakyat Sabah will again make sure the people of Sabah are well informed of this precarious situation. Pakatan Rakyat Sabah will organise a public forum related to this RCI soon,’ he said.
According to Chong, one of the speakers is the writer of many books, M D Mutalib and his first book titled ‘IC Palsu Merampas Hak Rakyat Sabah’ was one of the accepted evidences in the trial of his Likas 1999 election petition to prove the existence of non-qualified names in the then Likas electoral rolls.
“The rest is history. Mutalib also wrote subsequently – Pengundi untuk disewa and IC Projek Agenda Tersembunyi Mahathir. His books, truly without fear or favour, exposed many an intrigue revolving around this treasonous act against our country.
“I will inform the other speakers, of the venue, time and date of this forum in due course,” he said.