DAP: Nearly 75,000 voters in Malaysia with ‘problematic’ Sabah ICs

BY SYED JAYMAL ZAHIID
MARCH 23, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 – DAP election strategist Dr Ong Kian Ming revealed today that there are nearly 75,000 potentially dubious voters in electoral rolls nationwide, a number that could tilt the outcome of Election 2013 in favour of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN).

Ong said the number includes those with the “problematic” identification cards highlighted recently during a Sabah RCI hearing, as well as holders of the “Red” and “Green” Sabah ICs, whose voting rights are suspect.

Red IC holders are non-Malaysian permanent residents, while green IC holders are non-Malaysian temporary residents.

“I repeat the call for the National Registration Department (NRD) and the Election Commission (EC) to conduct a joint investigation to determine if these 74,988 voters are genuine voters who have been given their ICs and/or citizenship by following the proper procedures,” Ong said in a statement here.

“I stand ready to present all of my evidence to the Sabah RCI if I am asked to testify,” he added, referring to the ongoing Royal Commission of Inquiry probe on allegations that foreigners in Sabah are given citizenships in exchange for their votes.

During a recent RCI hearing, NRD assistant chief in the IC division Sabah and Sarawak Ruslan Alias revealed a list containing 130,459 problematic old IC numbers, divided into three lists called P1, P2 and P3.

P1 contains 51,300 old IC numbers with no information, or partially available information in the NRD. P2 contains 62,500 of these numbers, making the total 113,850. P3 contains 16,669 numbers which have been terminated since 1996.

Ong, who is Malaysian Electoral Roll Analysis Project (MERAP) director, later revealed that the watchdog found that 60,673 of the “problematic” IC holders in lists P1, P2 and P3 are registered as voters in Sabah’s electoral roll in the first quarter of 2012.

He later revealed the presence of 7,475 voters in Sabah with Red and Green ICs.

After expanding his search, Ong said today he discovered that the same problem affects voter rolls outside of Sabah, including in Sarawak and the peninsula.

In his statement today, the DAP strategist said a search on Quarter 1 of the 2012 electoral roll in the peninsula showed that there are 6,840 voters carrying P1 to P3 old IC numbers, as well as Red and Green ICs.

“The state of Selangor tops the list with 2412 such voters (35.4 per cent) followed by Johor with 1190 such voters (17.4 per cent) and KL with 952 (13.9 per cent).

“The evidence thus far reveals that that a total of 74,988 potentially dubious voters – P1 to P3 and ‘Red’ and ‘Green’ old ICs – in Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia. (60, 673 P1 to P3 voters in Sabah, 7,475 ‘Red’ and ‘Green’ voters in Sabah, 6,840 P1 to P3 and ‘Red’ and ‘Green’ voters in the rest of Malaysia),” Ong said.

Despite pressure from rights group and the opposition, EC officials have refused to respond to calls for a voter roll clean-up, arguing that some of the complaints raised were untrue while calling the high percentage of irregularities in the roll “normal”.

Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/dap-nearly-75000-voters-in-malaysia-with-problematic-sabah-ics/

MyKad "Islamisation" of Sabah's bumiputra Christians

2012-11-04 11:21

By BOB TEOH

Bumiputra Christians in Sabah continue to be "converted to Islam" by the National Registration Department (NRD) simply because they have "bin" and "binti" in their names. Sabah churches are seeking urgent solutions to the crisis but none seems to be in sight.

The NRD has made it clear it would continue to list bumiputra Christians in Sabah as Muslims as long as they are known by bin or binti. It would also not rectify past entry errors by way of changing the religion listing back to Christianity in the identity cards (MyKad) of those affected. The NRD would only act upon an order by a Syariah High Court to determine whether those bumiputra Christians whom it had listed as Muslims are not Muslims indeed.

Even if these native Christians get a hearing from the Syariah Court, both the NRD and Islamic authorities may not turn up, thus causing unnecessary delays.

A current test case has been mounted by a 53 year-old widow and her two adult daughters and supported by the respective local churches. All three are from the Dusun Banggi tribe.

Intim binti Lambatan, was born in 1959 in Banggi, the northernmost island in Sabah. Her husband died 20 years ago. She was officially baptised in her church, the Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) in Limbuak Darat, in Kudat on mainland Sabah seven years ago and issued a Baptism Certificate.

The SIB is the biggest indigenous protestant church in Sabah. Her elder daughter, Norina binti Nuhudan,28, was baptised when she was 15 while her younger daughter, Listin Nuhudan, 22, was baptised when she was 14. Both are also SIB members.

When all three had their religion wrongly classified as "Islam" in their MyKad, they brought the matter up to their pastors. A Christian lawyer from another SIB church in Kota Kinabalu agreed to take up their case but the lawyer had to engage a Muslim counsel to act on their behalf in the Syariah High Court.

In March last year a Christian lawyer, Victoria Jayaseele Martin, was barred from practising in a Syariah court despite having a Diploma in Syariah Law and Practice from the International Islamic University Malaysia, in addition to a University of London law degree.

The test case was initiated several months ago when Intim went to the Kudat office of the Jabatan Hal Ehwal Agama Islam Negeri Sabah – JHEAINS - or the Sabah Islamic Affairs Department, to clarify the status of her religion.

On 25 July, the department wrote to the Syariah Court in Kudat to say that Intim's name is not on record in their Pendaftaran Pengislaman (Islamisation Register).

With JHEAINS's clarification, she made a statutory declaration at the Kudat Magistrate Court stating that she is not a Muslim and that her name is not on the Islamic department's register. She said she was not originally a Muslim but when she applied for her identity card, the word "Islam" was wrongly recorded on it.

But still the NRD would not rectify its error and issue her a new identity card with her correct status as a Christian. It looks like it is Intim's responsibility to first go to the Kudat Syariah High Court for a declaration that she is not a Muslim.

This she did by filing a case against the Ketua Pendafter Muallaf (Chief Registrar of New Believers) of Sabah on 14 August. The Director General of the NRD was cited as the second respondent. She is asking for her status as a Muslim to be deleted from her identity card.

The Kudat Syariah High Court then wrote back to the Islamic Department to investigate further whether Intim is a Muslim on their register. The mention date was twice postponed to last Monday (28 Oct). But both the respondents did not turn up, thus causing more delays.

The problem has long reached a crisis in Sabah when SIB churches could not marry their members as some are found to be "Muslims" in their MyKad and the Registrar of Marriages would not recognise such marriages.

Two years ago, the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF), of which SIB is a member, met the NRD Director General and his senior officers. NECF was assured that the problem could easily be resolved be those affected filing in what it called a "Borang A" to change the status of their religion.

The NECF was happy with that assurance and posted an advisory on its website: "Fuss-free way to change religion data in MyKad."

"Christians who wish to change their religion to Christianity in their MyKad data are not required to tender any legal documents, such as baptism certificates. They only need to fill in 'Borang A' to effect the change," NECF then said.

"This was confirmed at a recent meeting between NECF Malaysia and top officials from the National Registration Department (NRD)."

But NECF itself pointed out the catch. "This is not applicable if they had been registered as Muslims."

NECF said, at the meeting with NRD officials, it also raised the issue of East Malaysian Christians whose religion in their MyKad is recorded as "Islam" simply because their names carry "bin" and "binti".

"This is a prevailing problem in Sabah and Sarawak where many indigenous citizens have names that carry bin and binti". The NRD automatically assigns their religion as ‘Islam' even though many of them are Christians," according to NECF.

NECF also said the NRD confirmed that those who are affected could change the data in their MyKad provided they had obtained clearance from the Syariah Court.

It looks like NECF had bought a dud – the Borang A assurance by the NRD is just a ruse to continue its "Islamisation" by deception in Sabah.

Source: http://www.mysinchew.com/node/79423

Stop dithering over electoral reforms, Proham tells Putrajaya

This guy is a Myanmar

Note 2 things: 1 - it is a blue MyKad; 

2 - it has a "Tarikh Luput" which mean "Expiry Date"

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June 03, 2012

Proham in a statement today said there has been a public loss of confidence in the Election Commission and the electoral process as a whole. — file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 — Putrajaya must focus on promised reforms in the next month ahead of national polls to resolve the “electoral crisis” instead of getting defensive over the chaos of the April 28 rally, human rights watchdog Proham said today.

The ex-human rights commissioners group wants the federal government to set up a permanent monitoring committee to oversee the 22 points proposed by a temporary parliamentary panel set up last year to boost flagging public confidence in the Election Commission (EC).

It also wants the EC to set up a separate supervisory unit that includes civil society electoral watchdogs “to resolve the electoral reform crisis and the lack of confidence in the electoral system”.

“This is causing the loss of confidence in the Election Commission and the whole electoral process,” Proham said in a statement today.

The watchdog said the election regulator cannot shirk its responsibilities by passing the buck to the National Registration Department (NRD) as the lawful authority dealing with registration but must work with it to weed out “phantom voters” and other irregularities from the electoral roll.

“Proham urges the NRD to cooperate with the EC to clarify the date these foreign-named voters were granted citizenship and the duration in which they have stayed in Malaysia,” it said.

The EC had come under fire for its delay and superficial response to “many allegations of failure to clean up the electoral roll and the absence of time lines and target dates to carry out the recommendations of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC)”, Proham said.

Proham cited an independent report that showed a list of 50 people in the Johor Baru parliamentary constituency of Kampung Majidee Melayu who shared the same address and were registered as voters despite being foreign-born.

“They have ‘code 71’ in their ICs (MyKads) which show they are not born in Malaysia and they all have the same address with no house numbers, some silat centre... which makes them highly dubious as possible phantom voters,” Proham secretary-general Datuk Denison Jayasooria told The Malaysian Insider when contacted today.

Proham said it was concerned because the names had suddenly appeared on the electoral roll after May 2011. In contrast, names listed prior to that could be accounted for as they were all registered to Malaysia-born citizens and all had addresses detailing relevant house numbers and street names.

It also asked the EC to verify a claim by Klang MP Charles Santiago that 3,457 voters had been questionably “transferred out” of his constituency.

Proham said the EC must work with the Attorney General’s Chambers, the Bar Council, Bersih and the PSD to come out with proposals to amend the law to immediately give the authorities the necessary power to clean up the dubious electoral roll within the next month and on a regular basis.

Electoral reform movement Bersih, led by Datuk Seri Ambiga Sreenevasan, has been lobbying the Najib administration to clean up the election process and make it more transparent, and held two street demonstrations on July 9 last year and another on April 28 to draw support for the cause.

The government has been hit by widespread criticism following its harsh measures at crowd control and has recently taken to suing Bersih’s leaders for damages under a new law allowing public assemblies that was enforced just days before the April 28 rally.

 Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/stop-dithering-over-electoral-reforms-proham-tells-putrajaya/