Mahathir a betrayal for Malaysia, says Baru Bian

By Baru Bian

Reading the testimonies of the various witnesses at the RCI hearings, I cannot help but feel intense anger at the betrayal of our people by Dr Mahathir. By his clandestine and illegal Project IC or Ops Durian Buruk, he managed to single-handedly manipulate the demographics of Sabah, which may have a very different socio-economic and geo-political landscape today but for his meddling. The extent of the effects of Dr Mahathir’s high-handed interference on Sabah’s culture, ethnic cohesion and development will be difficult to measure. This exercise in social engineering is all the more reprehensible for its main criteria, ie the requirement that the illegal immigrants must be Muslims to be eligible for ICs and citizenships. 

It is obvious to all that the motivation for Dr Mahathir’s repugnant Project IC was the desire to hold on to power at all costs. Sadly, the price was, and continues to be, paid by the people of Sabah, who were treated with such contempt by their Prime Minister that he gave not a care about the repercussions of his immoral and criminal deed on the true people of Sabah. By his manipulation, Sabah was turned into a Muslim-majority state, her original citizens given no say at all in the matter. It is clear in my mind that this latest uncovering of Project IC, and his admission that it did indeed happen, shows Dr Mahathir to be a traitor to the nation.

What is the most galling and bitter to me is that fact that while Dr Mahathir’s henchmen were merrily handing out ICs and citizenships to Muslim illegal immigrants in Sabah, even to those who had not applied for it, thousands of our own people were being given the run-around when they applied for birth certificates and ICs. In fact, many of them are still stateless today. These people were born and bred on Sarawak soil but for various reasons, (such as long distances to the District Office), their parents failed to register their births. I have been trying for years to help them in their applications with limited success. There are copies of many application forms in my office which were rejected or given no response by the authorities. There are some who were given temporary ICs with expiry dates on them, which I cannot fathom.

Those who make the rules and directives, or even those who take it upon themselves to decide which forms to process and which to ignore, do not seem to be aware of the grave consequences of their actions on the common people.  There is a Sarawakian working in West Malaysia who cannot come home now because his temporary IC has expired. I had a schoolmate in Tanjong Lobang who was a very bright student, but he was unable to further his studies because he had no IC. And we are now reading about illegal immigrants who managed to prosper in Sabah just because they were of the ‘right’ religion for the purposes of Dr Mahathir’s evil plan.

Dr Mahathir’s true colours continue to emerge day by day, each new revelation more repulsive and contemptible than the last. It is no secret that he is of the same ilk as the racist Ibrahim Ali and is a supporter of Perkasa; in fact they shared the same platform last week at the Perkasa convention where Ibrahim Ali made the call for the Alkitab to be burnt. Dr Mahathir’s presence at the event and his silence in the face of incendiary racist rants from Ibrahim Ali speaks volumes about the true character of this man who fancies himself as the infallible father of modern Malaysia.

In an effort to save his face, Dr Mahathir is now attempting to drag the late Tunku Abdul Rahman to join him in the mud where he wallows in self-righteousness. That, in the eyes of many Malaysians, is the final nail in the coffin of Dr Mahathir’s legacy and his credibility. Only a desperate and dishonourable person would resort to such despicable measures. Malaysians know that the difference between the first and the fourth prime ministers’ actions is as day is to night, as light is to darkness. I would be very interested to hear the views of the current Prime Minister of the matter but he is, as usual, mute in the face of challenging and awkward issues.

The revelations of the RCI lend credence to claims by the opposition that the BN government has been offering ICs to Indonesian workers in West Malaysia in exchange for votes. Project IC was highly successful in producing the intended result for the BN government, and the current Prime Minister had declared in 2010 that UMNO would defend Putrajaya at all cost, even if ‘if our bodies are crushed and our lives lost’, meaning they would stop at nothing to retain Putrajaya.  It is very plausible that they would replicate Dr Mahathir’s dirty tactics to retain Putrajaya.

The rakyat’s distrust of the Elections Commission has been justified by revelations of Project IC. Investigations must be conducted into the then Sabah EC director Wan Ahmad Wan Yusof for his role in this scandalous treachery without delay. Bersih’s demands now take on an even more urgent note and the Elections Commission must implement the measures demanded before GE13.

Mr Baru Bian is curreently the State Assemblyman for Ba’ Kelalan, Sarawak as well as Chairman of PKR Sarawak