Friday February 1, 2013

I got Malaysian IC after six years, says Indonesian guard

KOTA KINABALU: A man told the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) that he obtained a blue Malaysian identity card in 1979, six years after he arrived from Indonesia.

Security guard Yuhanis Bira said he first entered Sabah via Tawau from Sulawesi, Indonesia.

(Other witnesses previously told the commission that they received similar documents from 1986 onwards.)

Questioned by conducting officer Jamil Aripin, Yuhanis said a man whom he knew as a staff of the Tawau Native Court came to his house in December 1978 and offered him a blue identity card.

“The man filled up the application form for me and asked for four photographs and a RM12 processing fee,” Yuhanis said.

He said that the man came to his house again in December 1979 to hand over the identity card.

Jamil: Did you give him any supporting documents such as a birth certificate or a statutory declaration?

Yuhanis: No.

Jamil: What was your place of birth stated in that identity card?

Yuhanis: Tawau.

Yuhanis agreed that the details in the documents were wrong and understood that it was an offence to give wrong information on his identification documents.

However, he disagreed that his identity card was revoked.

Yuhanis said that shortly after handing over the identity card, the man brought him to the Tawau court to sign a statutory declaration form, but he said he did not know what its contents were.

He also said that he registered as a voter in 1981 and had cast his ballot in every general election since then.

Questioned by lawyer Datuk Ahmad Abdul Rahman, who was keeping a watching brief for the Sabah Law Association, Yuhanis said the man had asked him to support the Government for receiving the identity card.

Ahmad: How were you supposed to show that support? Through voting?

Yuhanis: Yes.

On June 1, 2012, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced the setting up of the RCI to investigate the long-standing problems related to illegal immigrants in Sabah, as the Government was committed to resolving the issue which could affect the well-being of the people in the state.

Najib had insisted on the setting up of the RCI and had on Sept 21 handed over the appointment letters to the RCI chairman, former Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Steve Shim Lip Kiong and also to the commission’s other members.

The Prime Minister was reported to have told the commission members that he wanted the inquiry to be completed before the 13th general election.

More News