16K Temporaray Receipt IC issue...

Former National Registration Department (NRD) Sabah Deputy Director, Mohd Nasir Sugip disclosed that about 16,000 temporary IC receipts (JPN 1/9 and 1/11) were issued to increase the number of voters in the 1994 State election.

Nasir, also an ISA detainee, was the 10th witness who was called before the Royal Commission Inquiry (RCI) on Illegal Immigrants in Sabah.

Presently the Managing Director of a company, he said he served in the public sector from 1980 to 1995 but held the deputy director post here from 1992 to1994. The Sabah NRD Director, at that time, he said, was Ramli Kamaruddin.

Nasir, from Johor, was detained under ISA on May 30, 1995 and was sent to a detention centre in Kamunting, Perak until he was released on May 30, 1998.

He said police arrested him under the ISA for allegedly issuing Malaysian ICs through dubious means and not adhering to the law.

Nasir told the RCI panel that the JPN 1/9 were temporary IC receipts while the JPN 1/11 were missing or lost IC receipts. He added the names in those receipts were eligible to vote.

He said the targets for the receipts were men and women over 20 years old who were Indonesians and Filipinos to increase the number of Bumiputera voters in the election. He said these holders were identified from the West and East Coasts of the State.

Conducting Officer Datuk Azmi Ariffin had to refresh the memory of Nasir by reading out his statement taken by an Investigating Officer appointed by the RCI on Dec 14 last year in Kuala Lumpur.

"Based on the statement, Nasir said he started to get involved in the task on 1992 to 1993 (involving P3 which was the temporary IC receipts that were suspected obtained through dubious means and not used by NRD).

"The Election Commission (EC) Director at that time was Datuk Wan Ahmad who called a NRD staff from the citizenship division named Azmi Abdul Karim and handed over a list of over 16,000 names listed in the EC roll to benefit as Bumiputera Muslim voters.

"Subsequently, Azmi had highlighted the matter to Ramli the NRD Sabah Director at that time and I was called by Ramli for discussion in his office together with Azmi and another NRD staff whom I forgot the name.

"Ramli had informed the matter to Deputy Director-General of NRD Awang bin Yaakub who had also issued a written order to carry out the project," Azmi said when reading out the statement in the hearing.

He further read that Nasir together with Ramli, Azmi Abdul Karim and another officer had signed an order to execute the project.

"Ramli later ordered us to use the names (over 16,000) in the EC list and changed all the particulars in the receipts (JPN 1/9 and JPN 1/11) to have more Bumiputera voters in Sabah.

"After that I was verbally ordered to assign staff who could be trusted to do the tasks in Sandakan, Semporna, Lahad Datu and in other districts in an operation named as 'Ops Durian Buruk (spoilt durian)'," Azmi said based on Nasir's statement.

To a question by the Conducting Officer, Nasir said the Ops Durian Buruk involved a change of the date of birth, photos and IC numbers based on the names given by the EC.

He said the Deputy Director-General of NRD had ordered the change of the identities of the holders and they signed a pledge to carry out the order together with Ramli and Azmi Abdul Karim.

He said no rewards were given to him for executing the operation and he was uncertain whether the holders were given any reward.

On whether the holders of the receipts were distributed across the State seats, Nasir said 800 such receipt holders were despatched to an east coast seat.

To a question from RCI Chairman Tan Sri Steve Shim, Nasir said there is some kind of collaboration and cooperation between the EC and NRD on this kind of exercise.