RCI member: No smoking gun on Project IC
MalaysiaKini.com
Dec 7, 2014

A member of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on immigrants on Sabah defended the report against claims of whitewashing.

He said the RCI could not make a make conclusion on the citizenship-for-votes scheme Project IC, as there was no "smoking gun".

"It was a probability. That’s why they must read the report to draw their own conclusions and on what needs to be addressed," Kamaruzaman Ampon, a former Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) vice chancellor told the Star.

Asked why the report said there was no government involvement in the influx of foreigners in the state, he said: "Do you find it there (in the report)?"

Kamaruzaman was referring to the 367-page report distributed to media after the briefing and sold to the public on Dec 4.

"It is not correct for anyone (to) say the commission worked with the government to cover up the truth," he said.

In the media briefing as part of the unveiling of the report in Kota Kinabalu on Dec 3, reporters were told that the RCI found the government was not involved in the mass issuance of ICs.

To a question, Chief Secretary Ali Hamsa who unveiled the report said the scheme was also not politically-motivated.

This debunks the widely-circulated claim that the influx of foreigners and issuance of ICs was done by federal agencies and Umno leaders to destabilise political opponents.

The RCI report said that Project IC "more likely than not" happened, but this is not conclusive because the five ex-National Registration Department officials who testified to this did not come under cross examination.

The five, all detained without trial under the Internal Security Act for illegally issuing ICs, testified to issuing ICs to ineligible migrants to affect the electoral roll.

The RCI noted that other witnesses testified that those arrested under the ISA for the scheme were only driven by profit.

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