NRD’s declaration on Sabah ICs a ‘no no’

The declaration is unilateral and also a contradiction in terms if the NRD also accepts that it will only take instructions from the Sabah Government.

KOTA KINABALU: The National Registration Department’s (NRD) position on the Sabah IC, announced without the sanction of the Sabah Government, does not hold water. Recall and re-issuance can be done, it accepts, but it must be a Malaysian IC, not a Sabah IC.

Having said that, the NRD in a contradiction in terms has declared that they will “only take instructions from the Sabah Government on whether ICs and MyKads issued in the state should be recalled and re-issued”.

Bingkor assemblyman Jeffrey Kitingan warned that if the NRD tasks itself with only the recall and re-issuance of ICs and MyKads issued in Sabah, “all those presently holding such documents and not eligible to hold them, would also receive the new document”.

All these, said Jeffrey, was not for the NRD to “cherry pick”.

“It can’t say what it will do and what it won’t do. It can’t say ‘this I would do, this I won’t do’,” added Jeffrey who is also Star Sabah Chief. “The sovereignty of Sabah resides with the people.”

He noted that Sabah NRD Director Ismail Ahmad conceded on Sunday that the NRD did issue genuine ICs and MyKads to foreigners at one time but, he claimed, that was many years ago. He recalled that 22 NRD officers had been picked up after a probe and detained under the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA). He could not say why they were not charged in Court.

Jeffrey, who was incarcerated in the 1990s for a four-year term – cut short in 1994 – under the ISA on the issue of Borneo rights, was taking issue with the NRD on it’s unilateral declaration on Sabah ICs, and the recall and re-issuance of Malaysian ICs and MyKads in Sabah.

He was also taking issue with the NRD’s statement that in the absence of a birth certificate, the Department has to “follow procedures” and issue a MyKad to applicants if they produce a supporting letter from the Home Ministry.

Ismail was addressing concerns raised by Huguan Siou Joseph Pairin Kitingan.

“The Federal Government should not use the NRD as its mouthpiece in Sabah,” fumed Jeffrey. “If it’s not willing to cancel all Malaysian ICs and MyKads issued in Sabah so far and issue the Sabah ICs in replacement to the eligible, it should say so. It should face the wrath of the people on the matter if it wants to gamble with their future.”

The NRD’s rejection of Sabah ICs, as proposed by even component parties of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN), proves that the Federal Government does not wish to see the IC and MyKad dilemma in the state resolved, said Jeffrey. “It does not want to see the marginalization and disenfranchisement of the people ended.”

At present, the letter H on a Malaysian IC and MyKad shows it as a Sabah IC, the letter K shows the IC and MyKad is a Sarawak IC. But this is not good enough, according to Jeffrey.

“The Sabah IC, as distinct from a Malaysian IC and MyKad, will mean the removal of ineligible people from the electoral rolls,” said Jeffrey. “The Federal Government cannot issue citizenship to foreigners, whether lawfully or unlawfully, in the mistaken belief that such people can stay in Sabah and pad the electoral rolls.”