Letter by Dr. Edwin Bosi, DAP Sabah Secretary
DAP Sabah is suspicious of the timing of the amnesty program been implemented in the country recently.
This is in view of the fact that the 13th general election is around the corner. As reported (DE 30/7/11), 312,837 foreigners were legalised in 2008 followed by another 161,747 in 2009 in Sabah. The amnesty which began in Sabah on 18th July 2011 saw another 157,966 foreigners been legalised.
Thus, the government has conceded that there are more than half a million illegal immigrants now legalised in Sabah.
DAP Sabah is now worried that with the biometric system, the legalised illegal immigrants can be quickly issued with Mycards, assimilated into the society and then entered into the electoral roll.
The three agencies namely the immigration department, the National Registration Department (NRD) and the Election Commission (EC) are now under scrutiny by the public.
DAP Sabah wants the three agencies to be transparent in as far as the amnesty program is concerned. We would like the immigration department to provide the list of foreigners that have been registered during all the amnesty programs. This will ensure that they are not legalised as citizen and importantly not entered into the electoral roll.
In the age of information technology this list can easily be uploaded into the internet and serves as reference for those who are interested to follow up with the progress of the amnesty programs.
In this manner the employers will also benefit as they will be able to track down or be made aware of the position of the workers who are seeking employment.
DAP Sabah is not surprised if these people are distributed around the country. They can be distributed as postal voters and placed in constituencies where certain leaders can be politically secured, or to all the Pakatan Rakyat controlled States. These people do not have to be physically present at the polling stations. With the biometric system only the election commission officials are involved in verifying the Mycard holders. So any person can be given the Mycard and vote.
He or she can also vote several times as long as the Mycards have been entered into the electoral roll and are listed for the particular polling stations.
DAP Sabah has planned to have video recordings of all the polling stations in this coming election. If our theory is right we will be able to video the same persons voting several times in the same or different polling stations. We will be extra vigilant this time round. With the evidence caught on video tapes we will be able to take the Election Commission to task.
There is so much suspicion on the EC by the people in general. The onus is on the EC to show that they are fair and transparent. The EC must seriously consider the eight demands from an NGO, Bersih. We hope EC will response positively to one of Bersih demands for the use of indelible ink for this coming 13th general election.
The EC must realise that discontentment of the people will continue to grow if it does not play its role fairly failing
which the country will see more Bersih rallies in the near future.
DAP Sabah feels that the local genuine BN leaders should be concerned about this matter. They should be ashamed if they win through cheating. We ask of them to search their conscience over this matter.
DAP Sabah knows that the decision of the genuine Sabahans voters will be crucial in the 13th general election. If they decide to vote Pakatan Rakyat with one heart and mind, then UMNO and BN can be defeated.
DAP Sabah appeals to all genuine Sabahans who have not registered to quickly get themselves register as voters. We also appeal to all genuine Sabahans not to assist UMNO and BN to win power by joining hand with the “new bumiputra” to return UMNO and BN to power.
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