By T Avineshwaran
PETALING JAYA: Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Tan Sri James Masing is perturbed over the likely existence of “Project IC”, urging the Government to weed out corrupt officers.
James Masing, who is also Sarawak’s Land Development Minister, said on Thursday that Sarawak might be the next target if the Government did not take any action against them.
“Authorities must take the weeding out of those corrupt government officers as soon as possible.
“We can’t have this type of officers running with impunity and sell the security of this country for ’30 pieces’ of silver.
“The main danger comes when the general election is held, and those who had no interest in the well-being of Malaysia have been empowered, by some of us, to decide on the fate of this country.
“It appears, Malaysia is moving in that direction – empowering illegal immigrants (at least in Sabah) – to decide on our political future,” he said in a statement.
On Wednesday, the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah concluded that the controversial “Project IC” had “more likely than not” existed.
The panel came to the conclusion after taking into view the credibility of five witnesses during the inquiry, all National Registration Department’s (NRD) officers.
“From the evidence of these witnesses, it is clear there was a clandestine exercise involving senior officers in the NRD, Sabah, who apparently acted under orders from their political superiors.
“This clandestine exercise involved illegal activities relating to the processing and issuance of Malaysian identification documents to illegal immigrants in pursuit of a political agenda,” said the report.
The report also named several prominent politicians who were mentioned by these witnesses, such as former Sabah chief minister Tan Sri Harris Salleh, Tan Sri Aziz Shamsuddin, the former political secretary to then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and former deputy Home Affairs Minister the late Tan Sri Megat Junid Megat Ayob.
“All of them except for Megat Junid, who has since passed away, have denied vigorously any involvement in such clandestine exercise or in the so-called Project IC,” noted the report.
The RCI felt that from the evidence, it seemed clear that there were two sides to the issue of whether the “so-called Project IC really existed.”
MoCS 