The Sabah electoral rolls are 'padded' with foreigners, mostly Filipinos, who had obtained their identity cards (ICs) through fraudulent means, said a politician from the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

"The electoral rolls are seriously tainted," Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) supreme council member and ex-senator Dr Chong Eng Leong told malaysiakini today.

Chong said that he had repeatedly asked the Election Commission (EC) to remove suspected voters from the rolls pending investigation, but the commission passed the buck to the National Registration Department - the government agency which issues the ICs.

In 1998, Chong had objected to the registration of more than 4,000 voters, who used the old Sabah ICs starting with the prefix H, but the EC only entertained 300 of them.

The PBS politician, who dropped a bombshell at the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity's public hearing in Kota Kinabalu last Thursday with his lengthy submission, lamented the lack of integrity in the way our elections are managed.

Chong, a consultant surgeon, talked of "the extraordinary population in Sabah" as a result of a collusion between ruling politicians and government officials in 'padding' the electoral rolls with foreigners.

He alluded to a secret plan called Project Mahathir (sometimes referred to as Project IC), describing it as "the deliberate issuing of Malaysian ICs to foreigners based on falsified surat akuan, or statutory declaration - like claiming they were born in Sabah when they were not."

Likas poll petition

According to Chong, his submission to the parliamentary select committee last week was based on his successful court petition in challenging the polls in the Likas state constituency in 1999.

The PBS politician, who was then in the opposition, won the case and the election of BN's Yong Teck Lee was declared null and void.

According to Chong, a Sandakan district chief and former Parti Berjaya candidate Asainar Ibahim, told the court of secret meetings in Kuala Lumpur chaired by the then deputy home minister, Megat Junid Megat Ayub, to discuss the mechanics of issuing ICs to foreigners.

Also presence at the meeting were top guns from Bukit Aman (police), Immigration Department, National Registration Department and the then chief secretary to the government, Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid,

Ahmad Sarji objected to the plan, but he was told that the project was already approved by then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Chong said Asainar's evidence was collaborated by another witness - an EC registration officer who branded the secret operation as 'Project Mahathir.'

The ex-senator added that in another court case in 1992, a magistrate had asked an accused, a foreigner, on how he had obtained his IC.

The accused explained that he was not deported upon his release from jail, but instead was told to register as a voter in 1995 Sabah's electoral roll.

Chong added that to the best of his knowledge, Asainar's testimony was not challenged.

Who's the traitor?

Voicing his growing concern on the matter, Chong said: "We are talking about hundreds of thousands of such ICs already in the hands of foreigners who are proclaiming themselves not only as Malaysians but also bumiputeras, enjoying all the privileges and rights of customary native rights in Sabah."

"If Dr Mahathir considers the cancellation of the Johor-Singapore bridge as 'surrendering our sovereignty' then Project Mahathir is worse than giving up our sovereignty," he thundered.

Chong estimated that half of Project Mahathir's IC holders are in Sabah electoral rolls for 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001.

"The findings confirm the doubt about the owners of Sabah's old IC numbers - H02880001 to H0384000, and H040001 to H0576000.

"About 26 percent of H0288001 to H0384000 and about 53 percent of H0480001 to H0576000 were registered in Sabah electoral rolls as compared to 73 to 90 percent of other numbers," Chong said.

This anomaly was also raised in Parliament but the government's answer was that it was not compulsory for every citizen to register as voter.

50,000 foreigner voters

In the certified 1999 electoral rolls when only new IC numbers were used, it was found that there were 150,000 local voters born in 1952 through 1960 - "they were Sabah-born because their IC numbers were coded 12," said Chong.

But according to the Sabah Statistics Department, the population of Sabah in 1951 was 224,141 and in 1960 it was 454,421 - an increase of 120,000.

Some of these 120,000 were born outside Sabah and assuming that all are still alive and 80 percent of them registered as voters, there would be 100,000 Sabah-born voters.

This means that one-third of voters allegedly born in Sabah in 1952 through 1960 - about 50,000 - were foreigners with ICs issued fraudulently.

Chong said this was where the use of falsified surat akuan comes in and hence Project Mahathir/IC.

When Chong asked the EC in Sabah if they had checked with the National Registration Department regarding the authenticity of the Project Mahathir's numbers - the answer was that the records were kept in Shah Alam.

Dr M's 'new citizens'

The PBS politician said three of the five principles of Rukunegara are: Kesetian kepada Raja dan Negara (Loyalty to King and Country), Kelihuran Perlembagaan (Upholding the Constitution) and Kedaulatan Undang-Undang (Sovereignty of the Law).

"Project Mahathir - the issuance of Malaysian identity cards to foreigners - is against our constitution and against our laws. How much kesetiaan (loyalty) do you expect from the rakyat then? On the other hand, would there be loyalty from the new 'bumiputeras'?"

Chong said it would be safe to assume that the Project Mahathir's new 'citizens' are made up of mostly one particular group of foreigners in Sabah.

Sabah's de facto foreign population, mostly Muslims from southern Philippines, is estimated at 1.75 million compared to about 1.5 million of local Sabahans.