Project IC - Modus Operandi

Modus Operandi

The project is a complex matter involving certain political parties as well as various government agencies including the Election Commission of Malaysia, the National Registration Department and the Immigration Department, which comes under the purview of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The suspicions and allegations on the existence of Project IC started in around the mid-1990s.

In 1999, a petition was made to nullify the results of the 1999 state election for the constituency of Likas based on the existence of thousands of dubious names found on the electoral roll. The seat was won by Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) candidate, President, and former chief minister, Yong Teck Lee. SAPP is part of the Barisan Nasional coalition. The petitioner was Chong Eng Leong of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), who lost in that seat. PBS was at that time not part of the BN coalition. One of the witness at the petition was Mutalib Mohd Daud, the former Silam Umno Division Executive Secretary. Mutalib was from Peninsular Malaysia who migrated to Sabah in the 1970s. He noted at the petition that among the 43,000 newly recruited UMNO members only 14,000 had genuine identity cards. Mutalib had also written a number of books exposing accounts of questionable granting of citizenship to foreigners. Among his books were, IC Palsu: Merampas Hak Anak Sabah (1999) (Fake IC: Taking Away the Rights of Sabahans), Pengundi Untuk Disewa (Voters for Rent), IC Projek Agenda Tersembunyi Mahathir?'" (2006) (IC Project, Mahathir's Hidden Agenda?), 007 Lelaki Malaysia Terakhir (2007) (The Last Malaysian).

Another witness was UMNO's Chief Information Officer Karim bin Ghani who was alleged to have written a letter to all UMNO branches in Sabah. The letter purportedly contained directions on the handling of Project IC. Karim claimed that he did not write the letter and that his signature was forged. The judge however viewed his bare denial with deep suspicion.

The judge presiding the petition, Justice Muhammad Kamil bin Awang, ruled in favour of the petitioner and declared that the 1999 election result for Likas a nullity. He also mentioned in his judgement that he had received instructions over the phone to have the petitions struck out without hearing—an instruction which he dutifully ignored.

In 2007, the former Sandakan district chief Hassnar Ebrahim made a statement confessing being involved in Project IC. He was a former detainee of the Internal Security Act in 1998. He also testified in the petition for the annulment of the Likas state assembly district election in 1999. Hassnar had exposed in specific details of the modus operandi of project of which he had witnessed. He mentioned a secret meeting between former Sabah chief minister Harris Salleh and Federal Minister Megat Junid Megat Ayub in Hong Kong. Hassnar claimed that 130,000 illegal immigrants were given ICs in 1985 alone. He also claimed that the aim of the operation was to increase the Muslim population of Sabah.

It has been said that the project was a secret policy of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, in particular United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), in order to attain political domination in the state using the votes of these immigrants. The immigrants are picked from those communities which would more closely resemble the Malay culture, or those who would most easily be assimilated into Malay culture. Main indicators would be if the immigrants were Muslims and if they speak Malay. It was acknowledged by the judge in the 1999 Likas petition in reference to Ops Gembeling, that the target of the operation were the "Malays of Bugis origin".

In response to a 2007 Parliamentary Select Committee, popular Malaysian news blog Malaysia Today alleges that UMNO had made a deal with the government of Libya and the Abu Sayyaf militant Islamic group in the Philippines to bring in 1 million new Muslim voters from Philippines into Sabah.

Former Parti Keadilan Rakyat vice president Jeffrey Kitingan alleges that there are 600,000 immigrants with ICs out of an estimated 1.7 million foreigners in Sabah. The estimated population in Sabah in 2006 was 2,997,000. Most of the foreigners in Sabah are from Indonesia and the Philippines.