Project IC: Poser over PBS-Umno collusion

PBS' recent defence of Chief Minister Musa Aman and Umno has left former Senator Dr Chong Eng Leong wondering about the party's integrity.

KOTA KINABALU: Former senator-turned-activist Dr Chong Eng Leong has questioned the sincerity of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) in defending state rights.

Chong said PBS now appears to be colluding with those who were once implicated in the recruitment of illegal immigrants to become Malaysian citizens.

“How can they be vocal and passionate about defending state rights?” he asked in response to a senior official of PBS saying that many Umno leaders, including Chief Minister Musa Aman are equally vocal and passionate about defending state rights.

PBS secretary-general Henrynus Amin made the statement recently in support of Musa following bitter in-fighting within the Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) over the treatment of smaller coalition partners by the BN chairman.

Chong repeated his unchallenged allegation that when Umno first expanded to Sabah in 1991, after PBS pulled out from BN, an Umno task force was formed with Musa as director and Yahya Hussin as his deputy (he is currently deputy chief minister) to recruit and grant foreigners in Sabah, Malaysian citizenship.

The illegal immigrants were subsequently registered as Umno members and as voters on the Sabah electoral rolls and this was disclosed by Jabar Khan, who was then the secretary of the task force, he said.

Chong, a consultant surgeon, challenged PBS leaders to ask Umno to expunge phantom voters’ names from the electoral rolls.

“Wasn’t this the dream of PBS when in the opposition?” he asked.

‘Dubious citizens’

Chong, a former senior member of PBS, reminded PBS that it had lodged numerous police reports on “Project IC”, submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission on phantom voters on the Sabah electoral rolls and requested these names be expunged and demanded the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants.

He said that after it rejoined the BN in 2002, it continued asking for RCI to be set up, besides submitting memorandum to the then Anti-Corruption Agency on the same issues.

However, the party has been ignored for the past decade and formed a cosy relationship with Umno to the frustration of Chong, who posed a series of questions that he said the party leadership needs to answer.
“I would like to ask PBS these questions: Have you received any feedback regarding those police reports?

Does Umno admit the existence of this Project IC? Does Umno agree to set up the RCI? Has Musa ever voiced out publicly about this Project IC? Has he ever asked for RCI?

“The answers are no and therefore why are you saying Musa is vocal and passionate about defending state rights?” he asked in a statement here today.

He stressed that as long as Umno and BN are in power, the perennial issue of illegal immigrants and “dubious citizens” will never be solved. It can only be solved when Pakatan Rakyat comes to power.

“The Pakatan government will not only establish a RCI on illegal immigrants, but will also recall all Project ICs issued fraudulently and expunge these names from our electoral rolls.

“The Project IC holders would be given the chance to apply for Sabah PR status according to our immigration laws,” he said.

Chong wrote a book on the controversial issue entitled “Lest We Forget” which focused on how illegal immigrants came to be given citizenship status in a plan to dilute the state’s overwhelmingly Christian population and turn it into an Umno bastion.

He believes that based on the last census there are probably more than 600,000 “new Sabah natives” and more than 70,000 of them  are so-called phantom voters and registered on the electoral rolls.

The new Sabah natives, or “New Malaysians” as they are increasingly referred to here, are those foreigners who allegedly became Malaysian citizens through dubious means including false declarations and the infamous “Project IC”.

By Queville To