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Kota Kinabalu: A Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) leader accused Warisan vice-president Jaujan Sambakong of not understanding the Sabah identity card (IC) issue.

SAPP Youth chief, Jamain Sarudin, said Jaujan, who is Sulabayan assemblyman, should have asked about the matter during the last state assembly sitting.

On March 22, former chief minister and SAPP chief Yong Teck Lee had pushed for the state government to consider implementing a Sabah IC as a way to safeguard the citizenship status of Sabahans.

Yong told the state assembly the issuance of a Sabah IC would kickstart a gradual process to filter out dubious identity cards issued to foreigners, including through Projek IC, and address the state’s perennial problem of undocumented migrants.

Jamain said the report by a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on undocumented migrants in Sabah had revealed discrepancies and the existence of dubious citizenship papers issued to migrants under the infamous Projek IC.

“This has shown us that the very system that we are supposed to trust has been compromised, abused and failed,” he said in a statement here Tuesday.

“That’s why the proposal of implementing the Sabah IC motion was pushed during the state assembly to protect the rights of the children of Sabah.”

Jaujan had said yesterday that the Sabah IC proposal was not a solution to address suspicious identification documents.

He added that the role of native courts should be enhanced instead to verify the origin of applicants for citizenship.

Jamain, in his statement, said many undocumented migrants were granted citizenship with the number 12 in their identity cards, indicating they were born in Sabah.

This had led them to enjoy Bumiputera privileges, he said, adding this was a clear example of the violation of the law under the country’s Immigration and Passport Act.

“It is strange that Jaujan doubts the implementation of the Sabah IC and that it would be abused. “I am sure he knows that Projek IC was created and manipulated to alter the state’s demographics and change voting patterns.

“That’s why Sabah IC needs to be implemented. We need to provide assurances and protection for the children of Sabah,” Jamain said.

He added that one of the mechanisms in the Sabah IC proposal was to involve native courts, educational institutions and healthcare facilities as references to determine the eligibility of applicants and filter out dubious MyKad holders.