The increase of more than 50% in the number of voters since 2018 has raised consternation and suspicion that the electoral roll has been rigged to include “pendatang tanpa izin” (PTI) or undocumented migrants who were issued the blue IC during the Mahathir Mohamad era.
A blue MyKad indicates that the holder is a Malaysian.
The number of PTIs holding blue ICs cannot be ascertained accurately as there are no reliable records of how many PTI were actually issued the document.
Former chief minister Yong Teck Lee said the public admission by a federal minister that the appointed Sabah MIC chief is a beneficiary of “Projek IC” is only the tip of the iceberg.
Projek IC is a term used to describe allegations of systematic granting of citizenship to migrants by giving them identification cards in the 1990s.
Yong said the Royal Commission of Inquiry’s report on foreigners in Sabah in 2013 confirmed that the current Sabah MIC chief had been born in a foreign country, but was issued a “code 12” on his Mykad, showing that he was born in Sabah. The named person has since been appointed to a GLC post.
PTI and voting impact
With automatic voter registration and young people being newly registered, Sabah faces the additional challenge of PTIs being eligible to vote. No other state in Malaysia faces the same issue as Sabah when separating the genuine Sabahans and those who gained citizenship via “Projek IC”.
If the number of Projek IC recipients is as sizeable as many people suspect, they can change the political landscape of Sabah due to automatic voter registration.
Sabah political leaders’ own fault
The dilemma is Sabah political leaders’ own fault due to years of complacency and political wrangling. Warisan lost the Kimanis by-election when the opposition spooked the people over PTI taking control of Sabah.
In January 2020, the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute think tank stated:
“A proposal to streamline immigration documents with the issuance of the Sabah Temporary Pass (or Pas Sementara Sabah – PSS) has become a major election issue. Many Sabahans, especially the Kadazandusun community, perceive the PSS as a license for illegal migrants to gain Malaysian citizenship and thereby destabilise the existing racial/religious balance and threaten the livelihoods of indigenous Sabahans.
“This may undermine Warisan’s support from the Kadazandusun community, which comprises about one-third of the electorate in Kimanis. Warisan is arguing that the PSS aims to effectively track the migrants with the ultimate aim of repatriating them to their home countries”.
Successive Sabah political parties have been playing with the PTI issue to win votes, making the issue bigger and bigger and harder to solve. The PTI have already created 3rd or 4th generation Sabahans.
The PSS proposed by Warisan was another chance to register PTI and control the illegal immigrant population in the state.
Now Jeffrey Kitingan of Gabungan Rakyat Sabah is talking about Sabah issuing its own IC to weed out the PTIs. Sabah leaders are paying the price of automatic voter registration and crying over spilt milk.
Sabah based party vs KL based parties
One former local party veteran Syed Kechil said “Sabahans are the loudest complainers in Malaysian politics. They complain about virtually everything from poor infrastructure to lack of autonomy. When they are given the chance to change course, they vote for Peninsular parties that will control their purse strings and their lives. Now there is a chance for PBS and Warisan to team up to be a formidable local party, but PBS still wants to be in bed with KL parties. The split will only benefit Umno. How are we going to develop Sabah when we are not united?”, he said.
Easy for veterans to blame others
Another youth activist Shari Benoit said, “People blame the youth for not being interested in politics, but this is far from the truth. We are, but parties tend to select veterans and if they put up youthful candidates, it’s only for window dressing. Nobody is addressing youth issues.
Fazar Arif, founder of POW.ER (Pergerakan Orang Wanita) said women are also not given a chance in Sabah by the GRS government.
“The state government has failed to appoint even a single female full minister in its cabinet and even the community development and people’s wellbeing portfolio is held by a man,” she said.
“When given a chance to put a women in the nominated state assembly seat to champion women rights, they gave it to PAS, a party that wants to turn Malaysia into a Taliban country”
All these politicians seem too interested in gaining their political perks, and appointment to positions in the government or GLCs.
Politicians rewarding themselves
A vegetable farmer, Kumit Dhalan, from Kundasang said: “We have been waiting for clean piped water since we formed Malaysia. We have been depending on gravity fed water ever since. When we gained an additional petroleum sales tax from Petronas running into billions, what did the government do? They rewarded themselves with a major salary increase.
“We just came out of a pandemic period where many people suffered a loss of income and yet they seem fit to reward themselves. Whatever extra income the state receives will be used to reward themselves without putting people first.
“What is the point of fighting for Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) when you know the biggest beneficiaries eventually are the people in power”.
Peoples’ frustration showing in Sabah
Wherever you go in Sabah, whether in the coffee shops or on social media, potential voters are raging against the government over corruption, inequality, poor distribution of wealth, and disparity in development.
People in Sabah are just as worn out as the people of the United Kingdom, who have seen a triple change in prime ministers and self-serving politicians.
Will automatic voter registration make a difference this time and help bring about the changes needed?
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.