Project IC is the name used in Malaysia to describe the allegation of systematic granting of citizenship to immigrants (whether legal or otherwise) by giving them identity cards and subsequently its current iteration, the MyKad. The alleged practice is centred in the state of Sabah in East Malaysia. The term is used mainly by the media as well as other political commentators and the general public. Another term used is Project M,[1] the "M" referring to former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad due to his alleged involvement in the spearheading of the project.[2][3]
The alleged object of Project IC is to alter the demographic pattern of Sabah to make it more favourable to the ruling government and certain political parties, especially with regards to changing the electoralvoting patterns. Former senator and state assemblyman Chong Eng Leong alleged in 2012 that there are 700,000 "Project IC citizens" and that 200,000 of them are on the state electoral roll.[4]
The project, in its widespread and intensive form, is suspected to have begun in the early 1990s after the entry of United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) into Sabah politics. However, there were also allegations of mass immigration and naturalisation of migrants in the 1970s under the United Sabah National Organisation (USNO) government, and in the early 1980s under BERJAYA government.[5] On a nationwide scale, illegal immigration is a major social issue. The problem is linked with alleged phantom voters also seen in other parts of Malaysia during elections.
Background
North Borneo (Sabah) together with Sarawak, Singapore, and Malaya together formed the federation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963. Sabah was multiracial state with no clear majority race, but with the Kadazan-Dusun as the largest ethnic group. Unlike other states in Peninsular Malaysia, the majority of natives or bumiputras in Sabah are non-Muslims. In 1960, the state comprised:[5]
Based on this ethnic composition, the Kadazan-Dusun dominated the political scene and the first chief minister appointed was Tun Fuad Stephens, a Kadazan-Dusun. Tun Fuad played an important role in the negotiations involving the independence of Sabah together with Tun Mustapha, a Bajau. After the formation, Tun Mustapha was made governor (Yang di-Pertua Negeri). Subsequent to this, various political parties, mostly racially based, took turns in helming government. Tun Mustapha's United Sabah National Organisation (USNO) took control of the state in 1967. The mainly Bajau Muslim party relied on Muslim votes in elections. Similarly for other Kadazan-based party or Chinese-based party, who rely on votes from their respective communities. Later, BERJAYA took control of the state. This party was more multiracial in its composition of member, but was headed by Muslim leaders such as Harris Salleh. There had been allegations of mass naturalisation of illegal immigrants during the tenure of Tun Mustapha and Harris Salleh including the deliberate classification of immigrants under the name pribumi during the reign of BERJAYA.[6]
There was even one instance of Harris Salleh openly admitting to carrying out and planning to overwhelm the demography of Sabah in favour of Muslims.[5] During the Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrants in Sabah in 2013, Harris Salleh also stated that the issuance of identity card and granting of citizenship to refugees were done legally in accordance with the Federal Constitution and the relevant United Nations charter.[7] He added that Malaysia's first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman had announced in early 1970 that Muslim refugees can stay in Malaysia while non-Muslim refugees may prefer to go elsewhere.[7]
Meanwhile, on a national level, politics were dominated by UMNO, a Malay-based party. Both USNO and BERJAYA had worked closely with UMNO at certain points in history. In 1985, a largely Kadazan-Dusun party, Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), won in the state election that year. The 1986 Sabah riots ensued in shortly after the results were announced to bring down the party president, Joseph Pairin Kitingan, as chief minister. In 1990, BERJAYA and USNO, decided to dissolve their party and form the Sabah chapter of UMNO. This party relied on membership from Muslim citizens of Sabah, be they Bajau, Suluk, Bugis, or others. The practice of naturalising immigrants was further intensified to guarantee their dominance in Sabah. They realised a great potential in altering the demography in their favour since most immigrants into Sabah were Muslims from Indonesia and southern Philippines. Later in 1994, UMNO managed to get hold of the government despite losing in the elections that year. In 2006, the estimated ethnic composition of Sabah are as follows:[8]
25% Non-citizens,
17.76% Kadazan-Dusuns,
14.62% Other Bumiputras,
13.4% Bajaus,
11.48% Malays,
9.6% Chinese,
4.8% Others,
3.3% Muruts.
Project IC is not so concerned with the 25% of non-citizens as this denotes immigrants without Malaysian ICs. The main point of contention when comparing the statistics for 1960 and 2006 is with regards to the sharp increase of "Malays", as well as the large number of "Other Bumiputras". There is also the significant drop in the percentage of the non-Muslim population, namely, Kadazan-Dusuns, Muruts, and Chinese. After Barisan Nasional regained power in 1994, the rotation system was introduced, whereby the chief minister's post is rotated among the representatives of the three different communities in Sabah, namely, the Muslim Bumiputras, Non-Muslim Bumiputras, and the Chinese. However, after 2005, BN decided to do away with the rotation system, giving the post to UMNO's representative, led by Musa Aman. Following the 2008 state election, BN controlled the state winning 59 out of 60 state assembly seats on offer. Out of the 59 BN seats, 32 are from UMNO, while the rest are held by various predominantly non-Muslim parties.[9]
Modus operandi
The project is a complex matter involving political parties as well as government agencies including the Election Commission of Malaysia, the National Registration Department and the Immigration Department, which comes under the purview of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The suspicions and allegations on the existence of Project IC started around the mid-1990s.
In 1999, a petition was made to nullify the results of the 1999 state election for the constituency of Likas based on the thousands of dubious names found on the electoral roll. The seat was won by Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) candidate, president, and former chief minister, Yong Teck Lee. SAPP is part of the Barisan Nasional coalition. The petitioner was Chong Eng Leong of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), who lost that seat. PBS was at that time not part of the BN coalition. One of the witness at the petition was Mutalib Mohd Daud, the former Silam Umno Division Executive Secretary. Mutalib was from Peninsular Malaysia and migrated to Sabah in the 1970s. He noted at the petition that among the 43,000 newly recruited UMNO members only 14,000 had genuine identity cards.[10]
Mutalib had written books exposing accounts of questionable granting of citizenship to foreigners. Among his books were IC Palsu: Merampas Hak Anak Sabah (1999) (Fake IC: Taking Away the Rights of Sabahans), Pengundi Untuk Disewa (Voters for Rent), IC Projek Agenda Tersembunyi Mahathir? (2006) (IC Project, Mahathir's Hidden Agenda?), and Lelaki Malaysia Terakhir (2007) (The Last Malaysian).
Another witness was UMNO's chief information officer Karim bin Ghani who was alleged to have written a letter to all UMNO branches in Sabah. The letter purportedly contained directions on the handling of Project IC. Karim claimed that he did not write the letter and that his signature was forged. The judge viewed his bare denial with deep suspicion.[10]
The judge presiding the petition, Justice Muhammad Kamil bin Awang, ruled in favour of the petitioner and declared that the 1999 election result for Likas a nullity. He mentioned in his judgment that he had received instructions over the phone to have the petitions struck out without hearing—an instruction which he dutifully ignored.[10]
In 2007, the former Sandakan district chief Hassnar Ebrahim made a statement confessing being involved in Project IC. He was a former detainee of the Internal Security Act in 1998. He testified in the petition for the annulment of the Likas state assembly district election in 1999.[11] Hassnar exposed in specific details of the modus operandi of project of which he had witnessed. He mentioned a secret meeting between former Sabah chief minister Harris Salleh and federal minister Megat Junid Megat Ayub in Hong Kong.[12] Hassnar claimed that 130,000 illegal immigrants were given ICs in 1985 alone. He also claimed that the aim of the operation was to increase the Muslim population of Sabah.[5] DR M.
It has been said that the project was a secret policy of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, in particular the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), to attain political domination in the state using the votes of these immigrants.[5] The immigrants are picked from those communities which would more closely resemble the Malay culture or those who would most easily be assimilated into Malay culture. Main indicators would be if the immigrants were Muslims and if they speak Malay.[5] It was acknowledged by the judge in the 1999 Likas petition in reference to 'Ops Gembeling', that the target of the operation were the "Malays of Bugis origin".[10]
In response to a 2007 Parliamentary Select Committee, popular Malaysian news blog Malaysia Today alleges that UMNO had made a deal with the government of Libya and the Abu Sayyaf militant Islamic group in the Philippines to bring in 1 million new Muslim voters from Philippines into Sabah.[13]
Former Parti Keadilan Rakyat vice-president Jeffrey Kitingan alleges that there are 600,000 immigrants with ICs out of an estimated 1.7 million foreigners in Sabah.[11] The estimated population in Sabah in 2006 was 2,997,000.[8] Most of the foreigners in Sabah are from Indonesia and the Philippines.
Government actions
Throughout the 1990s, several government officers were arrested under the Internal Security Act for their involvements in Project IC. A Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity was set up to hear testimonies of some of the detainees in February 2007. The committee was chaired by Sabah Member of Parliament Bernard Dompok. On 16 May 2007, Dompok quit as chairman of the committee over disagreements on the function and scope of the committee,[14] in particular, over the refusal of the National Registration Department to appear before the committee.[15] Later on, the findings of the committee was never made public.[13]
In May 2008, Member of Parliament (MP) Lim Kit Siang tabled a motion to set up a Royal Commission to investigate the problems relating to illegal immigrants in Sabah. The motion however was rejected by the Deputy Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat, Ronald Kiandee saying that the motion was irrelevant and was tabled at the wrong time.[16] Several MPs from Sabah gave lukewarm response towards the proposed motion preferring instead a Parliamentary Select Committee which would necessitate the involvement of elected MPs, especially from Sabah.[17]
Subsequently, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced the setting up of a high powered cabinet committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to resolve this matter. However, senior Sabahan politician Chong Eng Leong argued that similar committees had been set up in 2000 and 2006 without much results.[18] The Consumers Association of Sabah and Labuan (CASH) contends that the announcement of, among others, the setting up of the cabinet committee, was a mere lip service to pacify the people of Sabah.[19]
There has been several government crackdown operation to deport illegal immigrants since the 1990s. The latest crackdown is due to begin in August 2008.[20] These operations will serve to deport immigrants without proper documentations such as ICs or a valid work permit. It does not serve to address the issue of Project IC.
On 1 June 2012, Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that the federal government has agreed to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate problems related to illegal immigration in Sabah.[21] The Attorney-General of Malaysia was entrusted to draw the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the purpose of the commission. On 11 August 2012, the government officially announced the formation of the RCI including the members of the commission and the TORs. Political commentators have observed that the RCI appears to be a knee-jerk reaction to the defection of several prominent Sabahan BN politicians, who resigned in protest only a few days earlier because of the federal government's reluctance to deal with Sabah's immigration problems. The Royal Commission released a report absolving the Malaysian government of ever creating Project IC and blaming corrupt officials and syndicates of creating the problem.[22]
1. To investigate the number of foreigners in Sabah given blue Malaysian ICs or citizenships;
2. To investigate if the award of such ICs or citizenships were according to the law;
3. To investigate if those given blue ICs, temporary identification receipts or citizenships through unlawful means have been registered in Sabah's electoral roll;
4. To investigate if the authorities have taken any action or made improvements to standard operating procedures (SOPs), methods and regulations to prevent any irregularities in accordance with the law;
5. To conduct a deeper probe into the SOPs, methods and regulations on the award of blue ICs or citizenships to foreigners in Sabah by taking into consideration international norms and standards that are applicable to Malaysia, and to recommend amendments or changes to improve current practices;
6. To investigate the reasons behind Sabah's population growth according to the following categories:
a) Sabah citizens residing in the state, including those given blue ICs or citizenships through birth certificates (late registration);
b) foreign workers (including family members);
c) illegal immigrants (including family members); and
d) fugitives
and to study their impact on the number of those registered in the electoral roll;
7. To investigate the social implications on the Sabah community following the award of blue ICs or citizenships to foreigners in the state; and
8. To investigate the number of "stateless" foreigners in Sabah given blue ICs or citizenships.
The United Malays National Organisation ; abbreviated UMNO or less commonly PEKEMBAR, is a nationalist right-wing political party in Malaysia. As the oldest national political party within Malaysia, UMNO has been known as Malaysia's "Grand Old Party".
Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh bin Tengku Mohd Hamzah is a Malaysian politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gua Musang from August 1986 to November 2022 and for Ulu Kelantan from August 1974 to August 1986. He is the longest-serving MP to date, serving from 1974 until 2022, for 48 years in a row. He is sometimes referred to as the Father of Malaysian Economic Development for playing a pivotal role in establishing and implementing key foundations and policies in Malaysian economy. A descendant of Malay royalty, he is a great-uncle of the current Sultan of Kelantan, Sultan Muhammad V.
The United Sabah Party is a political party of Sabah. The PBS was founded by Joseph Pairin Kitingan in 1985 and it is Sabah's oldest local party. In August 2020, PBS confirmed that they would be using their own logo and flag until Sabah's local coalition is established under Registrar of Societies (RoS). In 2022, Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) is the only Sabah's local coalition that has been successfully registered under the Registrar of Societies (RoS) making PBS interested in using the coalition's logo and becoming part of the coalition's component.
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Illegal immigration to Malaysia is the cross-border movement of people to Malaysia under conditions where official authorisation is lacking, breached, expired, fraudulent, or irregular. The cross-border movement of workers has become well-established in Southeast Asia, with Malaysia a major labour-receiving country and Indonesia and the Philippines the region's main labour-sending states. Managing cross-border migration has become an issue of increasing concern in Malaysia and its international relations.
Datu Mustapha bin Datu Harun, or Tun Mustapha for short, was a Malaysian politician who served as the 3rd Chief Minister of Sabah from May 1967 to November 1975 and the 1st Yang Di-Pertua Negara from September 1963 to September 1965 and President of the United Sabah National Organisation (USNO). He was an important party in the negotiations leading to the formation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963.
The chief minister of Sabah is the head of government of Sabah, Malaysia. Since September 2020, the position has been held by Hajiji Noor from the Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah from the coalition of Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) which had won the 2020 Sabah state election. As in other parts of the Malaysian federation, the Westminster Parliamentary system is adopted, whereby, the leader of the party with the most seats in the state legislature would usually become the chief minister of Sabah. In other words, it is the person commanding the support of the state legislature. The chief minister is appointed by the head of state known as the Yang di-Pertua Negeri. In comparison to other states in Malaysia, the office of the chief minister of Sabah has been held by a more diverse group of people in terms of ethnicity and religion. The post has been held by Kadazan-Dusuns, Bajaus, Malays, Chinese, Muruts, Rungus, Sungai, Idaans, and other persons of mixed heritage as well as being Muslims, Buddhists and Christians.
The 1994 Sabah state election was held between Friday, 18 February and Saturday, 19 February 1994. Nomination day was 7 February 1994. The election was one of the most controversial election in Sabah's political history. The election was won by the incumbent ruling party Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), winning 25 state electorates against 23 won by the federal government's ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.
Sabah People's United Front or in Malay Parti Bersatu Rakyat Jelata Sabah is more commonly known by its abbreviation BERJAYA, was a political party based in the state of Sabah, Malaysia. BERJAYA was formed by former United Sabah National Organisation (USNO) secretary-general Harris Salleh who was later joined by Fuad Stephens, who served as the first Chief Minister of Sabah as well as president of the United Pasokmomogun Kadazan Organisation (UPKO). Stephens became the fifth Chief Minister after BERJAYA won the 1976 state election in April but died in June the same year, being succeeded by Salleh. The party had been a partner of Barisan Nasional (BN), the then ruling coalition of Malaysia since its inception on 15 July 1975.
The United Sabah National Organisation was a political party in North Borneo and later Sabah, Malaysia. The widely known Sabah's Muslim indigenous especially Suluk-Bajau ethnic based party was founded by the third Chief Minister of Sabah; Mustapha Harun in December 1961.
The Alliance Party was a political coalition in Malaysia. The Alliance Party, whose membership comprised United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), was formally registered as a political organisation on 30 October 1957. It was the ruling coalition of Malaya from 1957 to 1963, and Malaysia from 1963 to 1973. The coalition became the Barisan Nasional in 1973.
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The United Pasokmomogun Kadazan Organisation was a Kadazan-Dusun-Murut (KDM) based political party in North Borneo and later Sabah at the time it became a state of Malaysia in the 1960s.
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