by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Wednesday, January 1, 1986:
DAP calls for an independent inquiry to be conducted into the illegal issue and falsification of identity cards, in particular to illegal Indonesian immigrants
The government has announced its intention to replace the country’s 10 million identity cards with new fool-proof ones, which is expected to take six years and to cost between $5 million to $8 million.
The illegal issue as well as the falsification of identity cards has become a big scandal in the country, to the extent that it has become an open secret that illegal Indonesian immigrants could easily get either red or blue identity cards after a short illegal stay here. In fact, it is not uncommon for illegal Indonesian immigrants to have both red and blue identity cards, as had been disclosed in a court case recently.
The National Registration Department cannot continue to pretend ignorance and innocence, for clearly a vast syndicate or several syndicates are involved, involving government people, in the massive issue of illegal identity cards.
Before the old identity cards are changed to new ones, there must be a full-scale independent inquiry into the illegal issue and falsification of identity cards.
Those who had worked in Tawau, Lahad Patuk and other areas in Sabah know that illegal Indonesian immigrants would report for work without any identification papers, but after a while, they would be able to produce red identity cards, and later blue identity cards, which would enable them to cast their votes during general elections.
When they were in power, /Party Berjaya officials had been registering these illegal Indonesian immigrants as voters, and distributing identity cards to them to enable them to cast their votes.
This is why all Malaysians must remember what Harris Salleh told the press in May 1985 after he was toppled as Sabah Chief Minister, Harris Salleh predicted that the PBS would at most be the Sabah State Government for one term “because a lot of people are getting citizenships and all that.”
In Malaysia, the second generation of the illegal Indonesian immigrants are being born in the government hospitals and being brought up, and when they are 12, would claim Malaysian identity and status.
It is shocking that there are political leaders who are advocating the legalization of the illegal Indonesian immigrants, like the NASMA President, Raja Nasron, when they are the first to support severe government against the Vietnamese refugees-including the ‘short to kill’ threat!
The government has to date failed to give due recognition to the very grave problems that would be created by the influx of illegal Indonesian immigrants, not just the short-term problems of law and order, turning Malaysia into a ‘haven’ for illegal immigrant crime, and depriving Malaysians of their rice bowls, but grave political and nation-building implications for the long-term leading to the serious erosion of the basic rights and fundamental liberties of Malaysians enshrined in the Malaysian Constitution.