138. Filipino immigrant made Umno branch secretary, Sabah RCI told

Malaysia

Filipino immigrant made Umno branch secretary, Sabah RCI told

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/filipino-immigrant-made-umno-branch-secretary-sabah-rci-told/

By Mohd Farhan Darwis
June 20, 2013

Filipino immigrant Shukor Abdullah became an Umno branch secretary after being made a citizen using a Kudat address as his birthplace, he
told the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Sabah illegal immigrants today.

Shukor told the inquiry in Kota Kinabalu that he was the secretary of the Umno Kampung Tanjing Kapor branch and has voted in the general
elections.

"I had applied for a green identity card, didn't get it, then I applied for a blue identity card and got it," he told the inquiry, referring to a temporary card and the full citizenship (IC) card.

Shukor, the 132nd witness in the RCI, said he came to Sabah on a boat to escape the war in his country in 1967. Some 15 years later, he built his house in Sabah.

He applied for the identity card using a letter from the village chief, and was forced to use Kudat as his place of birth. "I got the IC less than a year later," he said.

When asked why he carried on with his application when he knew it was against the law, Shukor, 53, said he was adamant in staying in Sabah.

"I knew if I did not list Kudat as my birth place, I would not get the IC," said Shukor who is married to a Filipina. They have two sons.

He added that as long as he had the IC, he never missed voting in the elections.

Almost 28 per cent of the people in Sabah are foreigners with most of them the Philippines and Indonesia.- June 20, 2013.