Officials of the Consumer Association of Sabah and Labuan Federal Territory said they would lodge a police report later this week, demanding an investigation into a claim of top-level government involvement in the issuance of false identity cards to foreigners in Sabah.

Acting secretary-general Joshua Kong said he and president Patrick Sindu also want other relevant authorities to immediately investigate the allegation.

Kong said the problems caused by the secret 'Project M' or 'Project IC' have caused great anxiety among Sabahans.

He estimated that, of the 800,000 ICs already issued to foreigners since 1970, about half a million were to Filipinos, mainly from the southern Philippines.

Many of them are said to have since travelled to Peninsular Malaysia via Labuan Federal Territory.

The project has largely been blamed for the population explosion in Sabah, leading to foreigners now outnumbering locals.

Kong said the facts have been known for some time and have been highlighted in such publications as IC Palsu (False ICs) by Mutalib MD and EPIC (Extra People Identity Cards) of Sabah (by Kong), and a paper entitled 'When States Prefer Non-Citizens over Citizens: Conflicts Over Illegal Immigrants into Malaysia' by Kamal Sidiq of the University of California-Irvine.

Press releases by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) and several parliamentary reports have also cited the situation, he said, urging Suhakam and Parliament to be more pro-active in finding a permanent solution.

At a press conference on Sunday in Kota Kinabalu, Sindu called on more people to support the signature campaign launched earlier this year to petition the King to set up a Royal commission of inquiry.

To date, about 50,000 signatures have been collected, in spite of attempts by an organisation calling itself Yayasan Islam Sabah and others to undermine the effort.

'Political support'

Sindu told malaysiakini that Upko president and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Bernard Dompok was among many leaders genuinely concerned about the growing problem.

Dompok ,who is also chairperson of the parliamentary select committee on integrity and a former Sabah chief minister , has asked his party members to support the signature campaign. Other leaders of the state BN parties are said to be quietly supporting the campaign.

While allegations have been circulating for some time about the apparent ease with which foreigners have obtained ICs in Sabah, this narrowed to a specific claim during a submission to the select committee in Kota Kinabalu last week.

Parti Bersatu Sabah supreme council member Dr Chong Eng Leong alleged that former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former state chief ministers Mustapha Harun and Harris Salleh were involved in the schemes code-named P1/P2.

P2 refers to 'Project Mahathir' and also allegedly involved a former deputy home minister Megat Junid Megat Ayub.

Mustapha, Sabah chief minister from 1967-1976, was a Suluk from the southern Philippines. He was believed to have encourage many Suluks to move to Sabah to fulfill his personal and political ambitions.

At the height of his power, he was said to have threatened to take Sabah out of Malaysia and to proclaim himself as sultan of the Suluks.

Historically, Sabah has had links to the Sulus which literally gave away the land later known as British North Borneo to the North Borneo Chartered Company. Sabah was a crown colony until it joined Malaysia in 1963.