K o t a K i n a b a l u: “The Sabah government should implement a high tech, high-security Sabah IC as there is no legal impediment to its implementation. All that is needed is for the Sabah Legislative Assembly which Umno/BN has a 2/3 majority to pass a Sabah Registration Ordinance” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief responding on the calls for a Sabah IC to be issued.
Based on advice of constitutional lawyers, there is no restriction under the Federal Constitution for Sabah to pass the Sabah Registration Ordinance. As it only touches on Sabah citizens, it does not infringe on Item 5 of the Federal List in the Ninth Schedule which empowers the federal government to have control over federal citizenship.
In addition, the Sabah IC will be a State service for Sabahans, it comes within Item 7(b) of the State List in the Ninth Schedule which empowers the Sabah government to have control over “Machinery of the State Government, subject to the Federal List, but including …(b) exclusive State services…”
Technically, there are virtually no problems in the physical process of documenting and issuing a high-tech and high security Sabah IC which can be done in 30 minutes at the most. Biometric security features such as thumbprints, iris/eye retina identification and other features are easily available.
The Home Ministry is already issuing 2.5 million i-Kad with biometric security features for foreign workers. There is even a civil servant’s high-tech ID (Identification Card) issued for civil servants that prevent imposters from posing as genuine civil servants.
A Malaysian company is even at the forefront worldwide of issuance of e-passports with security features. Accordingly, there is no technical hindrance to the issuance of a Sabah IC with high-tech and high security features.
Logistically, a 1,000 set of Sabah IC issuing facility which will cost less than RM10 million, with a 1,000 team of 5-persons per team can easily issue the 3.2 million Sabah ICs within 6 months at the most.
Financially, the Sabah IC is a viable option and can be self-financing. In fact, it can be an annual revenue generating source for the Sabah government. As there is an estimated of not less than 2 million foreigners, a Non-Sabahan ID Card of RM50 per head will generate a revenue of RM100 million. A levy of RM50 per month for the estimated 1 million foreigner workers will generate an annual revenue of RM600 million.
On expenditure, the 5,000-persons IC issuing team’s emoluments, salaries, allowances and operating expenses will cost no more than an estimated RM130 million per year while the one-off capital expenditure is estimated at RM210 million inclusive of a RM100,000 vehicle per team to traverse the whole of Sabah.
Politically, many of the Sabah non-Umno BN component parties in Sabah including the RCI Technical Committee are in support of the issuance of the Sabah IC.
All that is now needed for the Sabah government to implement the Sabah IC is for Chief Minister Musa to table the SABAH REGISTRATION ORDINANCE to be passed and adopted in the forthcoming Legislative Assembly sitting scheduled in late November, 2015.
There is no doubt that the Sabah IC will not only secure Sabah’s sovereignty but also weed out fake ICs and MyKads issued to some 1.5 million “imported” Malaysians, which have started surfacing in Malaya, and resolve the long-standing illegal immigrants problem in Sabah.
Illegally obtained ICs and MyKads were conclusively proven at the RCI hearings where Indians, Pakistanis, Indonesians and Filipinos had openly admitted that there were born in their home countries but falsely and fraudulently declared that they were “born again” in Sabah and given ICs and MyKads and then registered as voters voting for Barisan Nasional in several elections.
The only downside to the Sabah IC, if it can be called as such, is that it will have negative implications to Umno and their 31 State and 13 Parliament seats in the next general election which will discourage the Umno-led government from implementing the Sabah IC.
If the Sabah government does not act to pass the Sabah Registration Ordinance and issue the Sabah IC, the only logical conclusion is that Umno wish to maintain their control of the federal and Sabah government and does not wish to resolve the fake ICs and MyKads and foreigner phantom voters in Sabah and losing Sabah as its “fixed deposit” seat. It will also mean that the Sabah BN components will fail to safeguard the rights and interests of genuine Sabahans and will betray their fellow Sabahans and natives and guilty of treason against their own people.
Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan
Chairman, STAR Sabah
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