Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Ex-NRD man: EC made us issue ICs to immigrants
A former Sabah National Registration Department (NRD) official has provided the clearest proof yet that there was indeed a concerted effort by the authorities to alter Sabah's electoral demographics in the 1990s.
Testifying before the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on Sabah's immigration problems today, Mohd Nasir Sugip said his department had once taken instructions from the state's Election Commission (EC) to provide unqualified immigrants with identity card numbers so that they are allowed to vote.
Mohd Nasir, who was once detained under the Internal Security Act, said the clandestine scheme was dubbed 'Ops Durian Buruk' and ran from 1992 to 1995.
"At that time, the Sabah SPR director Wan Ahmad (Wan Yusof, left) handed over a list of 16,000 names to be classified as 'Bumiputera Islam' voters.
"My boss, Sabah NRD director Ramli Kamarudin, then verbally told me to execute this project," he said.
Mohd Nasir also implicated three other individuals who were present when the instruction was issued, however their names could not be obtained as the RCI conducting officers - representatives of the Attorney-General's Chambers - were not forthcoming.
'It worked, BN won'
He said that he followed his instructions and recruited other unnamed officers at the district level for this operation.
Mohd Nasir said the operation involved providing the immigrants with identity cards and generating identity card numbers based on the date of birth, photographs and names provided by the EC.
"The list consisted of Filipinos and Indonesians who were Muslim and aged above 21 years old," he said, adding that they were mostly from Sandakan, Tawau, Sempoerna and other parts of Sabah.
He added that these individuals are then planted as voters across Sabah with the objective of boosting the number of Muslim voters in the state.
"An example is in the state assembly seat of Sugud and the parliamentary seat of Kinabatangan.
"We planted about 800 voters in Sugud and in the next general election the results were in favour of BN. The candidate won by 79 votes," he said.
Mohd Nasir said he did not receive any gratification by participating in the operation but was merely following instructions, for which he was detained under the ISA for three years beginning May 30, 1995.
Nigel Aw Mkini
http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/01/17/ops-durian-burukin-early-1990s-says-ex-nrd-officer/
ReplyDelete‘Ops Durian Buruk’in early 1990s, says ex-NRD officer – BorneoPost Online
Posted on January 17, 2013, Thursday
KOTA KINABALU: An exercise dubbed ‘Ops Durian Buruk’ was carried out in early 1990s to increase the number of voters in various constituencies in Sabah, the Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrants in Sabah was told yesterday.
A former senior National Registration Department (NRD) officer, Mohd Nasir Sungip, said 800 of these ‘new Malaysians’ were planted in the state constituency of Sugud.
Mohd Nasir, who is also an ex ISA detainee, disclosed that ‘Ops Durian Buruk’ was carried out on the Election Commission’s instructions to him during his tenure as the Deputy Director of the Identity Card division in the state NRD.
He disclosed that the state Election Commission Director, Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar, had handed to a NRD personnel a namelist of 16,000 names to be used as Sabahan Muslim Bumiputeras.
“Together with three other NRD officers, we brought the matter to the attention of the then Sabah NRD Director, Ramli Kamarudin, who verbally instructed us to do the changes to those in possession of the JPN1/9 and JPN1/11 documents. (JPN1/9 is the Temporary Receipt issued for application of an Identity Card while JPN1/11 is issued for a lost Identity Card).
Mohd Nasir also told the panel that he did not receive any reward for carrying out the instructions of his superiors and had done so even though he was aware that it was against the law.
Q: Did you do it on your own or otherwise?
“I acted on instructions given by my superior(s)… the NRD’s Deputy Director General at that time and I also signed a ‘vow’ at that time,” he said.
Conducting officer Datuk Azmi Ariffin then asked Mohd Nasir, “In your statement to the police, you said, Ramli instructed to use the names to change the identity of those in possession of the temporary receipts. What did he want?
To this, Mohd Nasir replied: “For the names, IC numbers, dates of birth and photographs to be changed. The existence of new names were based on the list given by the Election Commission.
When Azmi asked who was the target group, Mohd Nasir replied, “Muslim Filipinos and Indonesians aged 21 and above. Most of them were from the east and west coast of Sabah.
Azmi’s next question to Mohd Nasir was, “are those in possession of these temporary receipts eligible to vote and the latter answered “yes.”
Commissioner Tan Sri Herman Luping, when questioning Mohd Nasir, asked: “You said the purpose of this exercise was to increase the number of voters in Sabah. You also said that they managed to vote. Was there a relationship between Election Commission and the National Registration Department so that the names of these people can be inserted into the Electoral Roll?
Mohd Nasir replied, “In a way, there was a collaboration or cooperation between the Election Commission and NRD to do this kind of exercise.
Earlier, Azmi asked Mohd Nasir to disclose to the panel details of his detention under ISA on May 30, 1995 and the latter stated, “I was accused of issuing identity cards to illegal immigrants who were not qualified to receive the identity document. I was detained for three years, from 1995 to 1998 in Kamunting Perak.
“Can you tell the panel about your involvement in the issuance of the identity cards?
“What I understood was that ICs are applied through the normal process where the applicants submitted the necessary supporting documents like birth certificates, statutory declarations with details as to where they were born etc. But the Special Branch was of the opinion that what we did was not according to the process and law,” he said.