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THE Ministry of Home Affairs has announced many times since November last year that a new high-security-enhanced MyKad will be rolled out in phases starting from 1 June this year. 

The 2013 Sabah Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on Immigrants disclosed that approximately 120,000 old blue plastic ICs had been issued to foreigners based on Sijil Akuan (Statutory Declarations), or extracts of birth certificate based on the “Late Registrations of Birth” process without endorsement by a Magistrate’s Court. 

Most of the old blue plastic ICs bore the following designated serial numbers: -

H0288001 – H0384000

H0488001 – H0576000

These foreigners were considered citizens by operation of law under Article 14 of the Federal Constitution. 

They only had to complete a Sijil Akuan – originally intended for genuine Sabahans without birth certificates – falsifying their place of birth at a specific village in North Borneo. 

These documents were then blindly certified as true by Native Chiefs and District Officers. One such individual is Peer Mohamad Kadir, the immediate past Chairman of the Malaysian Indian Congress (Sabah Chapter) and Witness No. 116 of the Sabah RCI. 

He was notably appointed as a Board Director of Sawit Kinabalu, a state government-linked company, few years ago.

The National Registration Regulations 1990 replaced the old Sabah Registration Regulations, requiring a birth certificate to accompany applications for Malaysian blue ICs. 

Consequently, there was a sudden and massive surge in late registrations of birth. 

The Sabah RCI was informed that by 1992, there were approximately 300,000 such registrations; by 2006, the number had reached 740,381, all without Magistrate’s Court endorsement.

The Sabah RCI also revealed that between 1963 and 2012, 139,010 blue ICs were issued based on late-registered birth certificate extracts. 

Additional 7,810 blue ICs were issued to individuals who applied for citizenship through other Articles of the Federal Constitution.

Legally, every copy of a late registration entry must have the words “LATE REGISTRATION” printed conspicuously upon it. 

No copy so marked should be admissible as evidence unless the truth of the facts therein has been verified by a Magistrate’s Court. 

I was a candidate for the Likas Constituency in the 1999 Sabah Election. The declared winner, Datuk Yong Teck Lee, secured 9,110 votes, while I received 4,148 votes among five other candidates. 

Out of 25,976 registered voters in Likas at that time, 17,452 turned out to vote (68.2%). The gazetted 1998 electoral rolls, containing 604,001 names, were used for that election. 

I filed an Election Petition No. K11 of 1999 against the Sabah State Election Officer, the Returning Officer and Datuk Yong Teck Lee. 

I contended that the electoral rolls used for the Likas Constituency was tainted with names of individuals ineligible to vote because they were not citizens – popularly referred to as “phantom voters”. 

I won a landmark judgment. I produced evidence similar to that disclosed in the Sabah RCI regarding the designated old IC numbers reserved for unqualified foreigners using Sijil Akuan in leu of birth certificates. 

The Likas constituency contained approximately 7,000 names of voters whose old IC numbers fell within the suspect ranges: H0288001-H0384000 and H0488001-H0576000.

As the exercise to replace the current MyKad begins this June, I hope the Ministry of Home Affairs will diligently and painstakingly scrutinise blue ICs issued via Sijil Akuan or birth certificates marked “LATE REGISTRATION” that lack Magistrate’s Court endorsement. 

Holders of these illegally issued ICs are the “Project IC” citizens. 

The Sabah RCI concluded that Project IC was a reality, implicating officials in the illicit issuance of identification documents, stating: “There is a probability that such Project IC did exist at all material times.” 

Dr Chong Eng Leong

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