Over 5,000 pages are missing from the RCI Report on Illegal Immigrants in Sabah released by the government on Dec 3 – call on Najib to immediately release the missing pages
Firslty, let me thank the packed capacity for attending this forum organised at very short notice for taking part in a straw vote by show of hands that not a single person in this hall support the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Illegal Immigrants in Sabah (RCIIIS) Report released in Kota Kinabalu on Dec. 3, and the unanimous show of hands showing disappointment or rejection of the RCIIIS Report.
This is confirmation of the deep and widespread disbelief, dismay and disquiet by the people of Kota Kinabalu and Sabah over the RCIIIS Report, which has been such a great letdown after the high hopes and expectations of the people that finally, there would be a solution to the four-decades-old problem of illegal immigrants which has changed the political demography in Sabah as well as the social, economic and security circumstances and landscape for Sabahans.
In fact, I had said – and I find confirmation tonight – that if the RCIIIS Report had been released before the 13GE in May last year, Datuk Seri Najib Razak would not be the Prime Minister today, and that if a Sabah state general elections is held now, the RCIIIS Report will be one issue which will be cause of the downfall of the UMNO/BN State Government in Sabah.
Firstly, le me say that the RCIIIS Report, as released on Dec. 3 in Kota Kinabalu, is completely unsatisfactory. Over 5,000 pages are missing from the RCIIIS Report when it was released on Dec 3.
I call on Najib to immediately release the missing pages.
The RCIIIS Report should be thickest and most voluminous of all RCI reports in the nation’s history but it is only 368 pages.
The Report Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Videotape Scandal comprise four volumes: Vol 1 – 191 pages; Vol 2 Notes of Evidence 1,187 pages; Vol 3 Statutory Declarations 513 pages and Volume 4 Exhibits – 474 pages. A total of 2,365 pages!
The RCIIIS received 361 memorandum and 177 exhibits, held public hearings from January 14 until September 2013 where 211 witnesses appeared before it.
Where are the memorandum, notes of evidence, the statutory declarations and exhibits which were submitted to the RCIIS which, I understand, exceed 5,000 pages – which are essential parts of the RCIIIS Report.
Why has the government released less than 10 per cent of the actual Report of the RCIIIS, when the Lingam VideoTape Scandal RCI could present a Report of over 2,300 pages producing all the notes of evidence, statutory declarations and exhibits?
The first thing Sabahans and Malaysians must demand from Najib is the release of the full Report of the RCIIIS as it is in the public interest that all the over 5,000 pages of memorandum, notes of evidence, statutory declarations and exhibits should be made public.
In fact, this should the first task of the Joseph Pairin RCIIIS working committee. Is Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin prepared to take a stand that the full report of over 5,000 pages of the RCIIIS Report should be immediately made public?
Secondly, why had the “royal” status of the RCIIIS been stripped off, as the front page of the RCIIIS Report states “REPORT Commission of Enquiry on Immigrants in Sabah”. I have here a copy of the 2005 Report of the Police Royal Commission headed by former Chief Justice Tun Dzaiddin which was appointed by the then Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Clearly printed on the cover are the words “Report of Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police”.
Why has the Federal Government suddenly stripped the RCIIIS on its “royal” status, not printing clearly on the cover of the Report that it is Royal Commission of Inquiry into illegal immigrants in Sabah?
Furthermore, why are there no signatures of the Commissioners on the Report, not even a preface by the Chairman of the RCIIIS, Tan Sri Steve Shim Lip Kiong when there was a foreword by Chairman of the Police Royal Commission of Inquiry, Dzaiddin in the :Police RCI Report!
Thirdly, The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should have been in Kota Kinabalu to personally launch the RCIIIS Report to show that he gives serious weight both to the RCIIIS and the solution to the forty-year problem for Sabahans.
Unfortunately, Najib played the role of an “absentee Prime Minister” and delegated the launching of the RCIIIS Report to the Chief Secretary, Tan Sri Hamsa Ali and the Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail – and both further clouded the occasion by either distorting the report or gave completely untrue and misleading accounts of the illegal immigrant problem.
Hamsa, for instance, claimed that politicians have been cleared of being implicated in “Project IC” which the RCIIIS Report had not done.
Gani on his part claimed that illegal immigrants had been “purged” from the electoral rolls which are therefore completely “clean” as far as illegal immigrants in Sabah are concerned – which is also baseless and untrue.
One RCIIIS Commissioner said “No smoking gun on Project IC”, but going through the RCIIIS Report, I find many “smoking guns”.
It is most shocking that the Commissioners cannot see these “smoking guns” and have gravely failed Sabahans. This is why Sabahans find the RCIII Report completely unsatisfactory.
The Sabah State Government and State Assembly have also failed the people of Sabah, as they should be in the very forefront not only to show concern but to resolve the 40-year nightmare of the illegal immigrants problem in Sabah.
Why hasn’t the Sabah State Assembly been convened in emergency session to debate the RCIIIS Report if the Sabah State Government is serious in wanting an end to the 40-year illegal immigrant nightmare in Sabah?
With the RCIIIS Report a great failure and letdown of the hopes and trust of the people of
Sabah and Malaysia, there should be a Report on the RCIIIS Report to show where RCIIIS had failed the people, state and nation.
However, as a first step, the Prime Minister should release the missing 5,000 pages of the RCIIIS Report without any delay.
Will the BN Sabah Ministers, MPs, State Assemblymen and leaders also take up this call?