Be transparent about amnesty programme for illegals: DAP
Published on: Sunday, August 14, 2011
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah DAP is suspicious of the timing of the amnesty programme with the 13th General Election right around the corner.Its Secretary, Dr Edwin Bosi, said as reported in the Daily Express on July 30, 312,837 foreigners were legalised in 2008, followed by another 161,747 in 2009 in Sabah. The latest amnesty, which began in Sabah on July 18, 2011, saw another 157,966 foreigners being legalised. "Thus, the Government has conceded that there are more than half a million illegal immigrants now legalised in Sabah," he said in a statement, Saturday.
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"DAP Sabah is now worried that with the biometric system, the legalised illegal immigrants can be quickly issued with MyKad, assimilated into the society and then registered in the electoral roll. "The three agencies, namely the Immigration Department, National Registration Department (NRD) and Election Commission (EC), are now under scrutiny by the public," he said. DAP Sabah wants the three agencies to be transparent in as far as the amnesty programme is concerned. "We would like the Immigration Department to provide the list of foreigners that have been registered during all the amnesty programmes to ensure that they are not legalised as citizens and, most importantly, not entered into the electoral roll.
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"In this information technology age, this list can easily be uploaded into the Internet and serves as reference for those interested to follow up with the progress of the amnesty programmes. "In this manner, the employers will also benefit as they will be able to track down or be made aware of the position of the workers who are seeking employment," he said.
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DAP Sabah is not surprised if these people were distributed around the country. He claimed they can be distributed as postal voters and placed in constituencies where certain leaders can be politically secured, or to all the Pakatan Rakyat controlled states. "These people do not have to be physically present at the polling stations. With the biometric system, only Election Commission officials are involved in verifying the MyKad holders. "So, any person can be given the MyKad and vote. He or she can also vote several times as long as the MyKads have been entered into the electoral roll and listed for the particular polling stations," he said."DAP Sabah plans to have video recordings of all the polling stations in this coming election. If our theory is right, we will be able to video the same persons voting several times in the same or different polling stations. "We will be extra vigilant this time around. With the evidence caught on videotapes, we will be able to take the Election Commission to task," he said."There is so much suspicion on the EC by the people in general. The onus is on the EC to show that they are fair and transparent. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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