KOTA KINABALU: A Pakistani man yesterday told the Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrants in Sabah that he applied and obtained a Blue Malaysian Identity Card without providing any supporting document to the National Registration Department (NRD).
Abdullah Mahmood who said he is illiterate told the panel that the application form was filled in by NRD personnel.
“I was not asked for any supporting document, only to submit two black and white photographs,” said Abdullah, who was born in Pakistan in 1958, and added that he applied for the identification document in the 80s.
“I went to the NRD office in Kota Kinabalu and said I want to apply for an identification card. I told the officer there that I was illiterate and a personnel was then asked to assist me to fill in the application form,” he said.
Abdullah, who was very frank when giving his statement, said that he has since voted six times and the first time was in Keningau during the time PBS was in the opposition.
He was initially not allowed to vote because the residents there said that as he was not born in Keningau, so he had no right to vote.
“They had no choice but to allow me to vote after the OCPD checked my Identity Card and instructed them to do so,” he said but added that after several ugly incidents involving his fellow citizens there, he decided to change his voting district to Beaufort.
“They sent thugs to threaten me even though they are aware that I have married a Dusun woman and we have resided in Keningau since the 1990s. Our three sons were even born in Keningau,” Abdullah said.
Abdullah also told the panel that upon the advice of his wife, their children’s nationality on their birth certificate and identity card was stated as Melayu while their place of birth was in Keningau.
Their youngest son, Amir Syed Abdullah’s place of birth was listed down as Kampung Panagatan Laut, the village where they are residing now.
Meanwhile, the chairman of a Village Development and Security Committee (JKKK) told the inquiry he denied one Amir Syed Abdullah was his cousin’s son.
This had resulted in the JKKK chairman of Kampung Panagatan Laut in Keningau, Steven @ Lahamin Wasibin lodging a police on Dec 12, 2012 for the authorities to verify the 19-year-old’s place of birth.
Abdullah explained that Steven, who is his wife’s cousin, has never met the boy before as they had only moved to the village about five years ago.