KOTA KINABALU: Former Malaysian deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim,
told the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) here that throughout his term
in the federal government from 1982 to 1998, he had been kept in the
dark over two issues — the billions of ringgits flowing out and issues
of home security.
“On the billions of ringgits only Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Daim
Zainuddin knew, while on issues of Home Affairs, I was only involved on
the problem of housing for the police force which I brought up when I
learned from security men assigned to my house that some of them lived
in squatter huts,” he told the five-member royal commission in a packed
High Court room here.
Anwar who is now the opposition leader in Parliament, also revealed that
even during the Ops Lallang, where many opposition leaders were
arrested, he was not consulted and was kept in the dark until the very
end.
“When I asked the prime minister, Mahathir, what was going on, his
standard reply was ‘this is security issue, I will deal with the
police’,” he said.
Earlier he testified that he did not believe Mahathir would not know of
the existence of Project IC, or giving out Malaysian documents to
illegal immigrants, in Sabah.
He said it was impossible for Mahathir to claim ignorance about the
dubious issuance of Malaysian identity documents to illegal immigrants
in Sabah, unless he was irresponsible and incompetent.
Saying he himself was not involved in any security task force, Anwar
asserted that Mahathir, as the prime minister at the height of Project
IC, had a full knowledge of what was going on in home security as he was
also Home Minister at the time.
Dr M was aware
Anwar who wore dark glasses throughout his two-hour session with the
RCI, told the hearing that he believed there was corruption and
unaccountability on many levels but not necessarily in all civil
service, and this provided for a rotting system in Malaysia including in
security matters.
When asked by RCI chairman, Steve Shim Lip Kiong, whether he agreed that
Malaysia had a weak system on awarding citizenship, Anwar said he
partially agreed.
He added that there are laws for citizenship and it had been awarded
every now and then but that its issuance to hundreds of thousands of
illegal immigrants would not have been possible without the knowledge of
the Home Minister.
“If the issuance of citizenship is for a few hundred people yes, but
there is no way we can issue citizenship to the hundreds of thousands
without the knowledge of the Home Minister, or approval from the very
top leadership,” he said.
Asked by RCI member Herman Luping on what could be done to the
foreigners who now have Malaysian documents, Anwar replied Malaysia has
to deal with it from a constitutional and humanitarian basis.
“But it will be a major and horrendous exercise,” he pointed out.
Anwar also painted a picture that Sabahan ministers in the Federal
Cabinet had not been vocal or convincing enough on the illegal
immigrants issues in Sabah, so as to compel the Cabinet to discuss it.
“I think most of the time people were satisfied with the answer given by
the Home Ministry,” he said admitting that the problem in Sabah is a
national issue and not just a Sabah matter.
Not under current state government
On the proposal by certain parties that a Homeland Security be
established to resolve the illegal immigrants issue in Sabah, the former
deputy premier said it matters little if corrupt leaders are to lead in
it.
“You set up a new unit, but soon it will be infested by corrupt
officers,” he said adding that those who proposed the setting up of a
Homeland Security, if it is modeled after the United States which
introduced it after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks, they better be aware
of the downsides of it.
On the proposal by certain parties for the Sabah state government to
issue its own identity cards in order to differentiate between genuine
Sabahans and foreigners with Malaysian documents, Anwar said he would
not agree with the idea under the current (Umno-led) Sabah state
government.
“We must allow officers from the (Sabah) state to monitor but I would
not support the state to issue its own IC, especially this particular
state government,” he said.
He also said the police and army were beefed up in Sabah but that was still not adequate.
Mahathir who testified at the RCI last week denied any knowledge of
Project IC, or citizenship-for-votes scam, which was done in the 1990s
in order to legalise many foreigners as Malaysians in return for their
votes for BN.
A day after his testimony, Mahathir alluded that Anwar would be the
right person to answer questions on this issue, suggesting that the
latter had played an active role in the project.
Previously Sabah politician Jeffrey Kitingan too had urged Anwar to tell the truth when he testifies at the RCI.
By Luke Rintod
