A COMPLETE WIPEOUT OF BN COMPONENT PARTIES IN GE13, thanks to you DR M!

Do we have to rewrite our history now? The former Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, had proposed a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate the granting of citizenship to one million foreign immigrants in the Federation of Malaya before it gained independence in 1957.

This supposedly must have included Mahathir’s father who came to Malaya from Kerala as an immigrant.

It must be a sickening magniloquence coming from a former prime minister whose survival in politics many times before very much depended on non-Malay votes. With this declaration coming from Mahathir just before the 13th general elections will see the complete wipe out of the component parties allied to UMNO in Barisan Nasional (BN).

Strongly affirming them for single citizenship

It was indeed a fair and just move by Tunku Abdul Rahman and the Reid Commission that these immigrants were granted citizenship. It was not deliberately done for political ‘whys and wherefores’ but to achieve Independence for Malaya collectively – Malays and non-Malays. Neither were these immigrants frantically planted in political plebiscites to give advantage to any political parties at the time.

Tunku did not give out citizenship to misrepresent the electoral process. The non-Malays who resided in Malaya then had a right to citizenship, which was approved by all – Malays and the British – including the Conference of Rulers, and this was all done in an overt manner.

It was not a covert scheme but an open policy taken on and recognised by the British and Malayans at the time. This is what is written in our history books and annals for all to digest.

In fact it was in1952 that the government issued an ordinance that granted citizenship to almost 1.5 million non-Malays, and also prohibited dual citizenship, forcing the non-Malays to choose between their ancestral homeland and Malaya.

In August 1957, Malaya was granted independence from British colonial rule and of course with an understanding that the Chinese and Indians given citizenship would remain as legitimate citizens of the country. In return, the special position of the Malays was recognised in the Constitution.

In fact, the British favoured dual citizenship for the non-Malays – that of independent Malaya and of the United Kingdom and Colonies – but UMNO was opposed to this. In other words, UMNO wanted the non-Malays to be citizens of independent Malaya – strongly affirming them for single citizenship.

Mahathir would have done the same if he were in Tunku’s shoes. Mahathir was already an UMNO member then and there is no record to show that he protested against Tunku’s move at the time. Mahathir’s unconcealed protests against Tunku only started in the late 60s’ when he had lost in the 1969 general election for his unpopularity among the majority Malays and minority Chinese in Kedah.

Tunku did not give citizenship for votes

The British brought in the Chinese and Indians into the country for a valid reason. It was not done without the open consent of the rulers and the Malay entrepreneurs then. It was done for economic reasons that not only benefited the British but also the rulers and the local people at large. The country saw rapid development with the help of these immigrants.

The British brought in the Chinese to work in the tin mines and the Indians to work in the rubber plantations and to build the railways. Many were also professionals – doctors, engineers, teachers etc. – working under British administration. By the start of World War II, Malaya's economy was thriving with the export of tin and rubber. There were plantations, townships, roads, railways and ports where import and export trades flourished.

Indubitably, the immigrants and their descendants who are now lawful citizens of this country have contributed enormously in practically all fields to the development of this country.

Tunku thus did not commit any scandalous crime by giving citizenship to the non-Malays. It’s actually UMNO’s subsequent faults that have failed to build a united nation with all races living in peace and harmony. UMNO – which includes the era of Mahathir as prime minister – had done little to help the Malays cope with the other races economically.

They were given 55 years to do so but they had failed to see a progressive Malay race and a united Malaysia. It’s a policy they adopted throughout that went ‘all wrong’.

Making the electoral process a mockery

What Mahathir has done to Sabah in the 90s’ is considered despicable and treasonous. Project IC or ‘Project M’ that he coxswained was to subvert the electoral process and also the sovereignty of Sabah and Malaysia.

Mahathir has no right to claim that Tunku had done worse by giving citizenship to one million ‘unqualified’ people in Peninsular Malaysia. Tunku did not give citizenship for votes to shore up UMNO’s political power. The RCI in session in Sabah now has bared some shocking revelations that are rumbling the whole nation.

The exposés at the on-going RCI on illegal immigrants on Project IC and the ‘IC receipts-for-votes’ and ‘citizenship-for-votes’ scams in Sabah have triggered so much anger among the legitimate people of Sabah.

The people of Sabah and their political representatives were not consulted before this project took place, except for a few self-seeking leaders who have worked in tandem with UMNO to cheat and to be rewarded posts and positions in the government. They have sold their souls and the state’s sovereignty for some personal pluses.

Mahathir did not conduct the Project IC in an open and transparent process by getting mandate from the Parliament, Conference of Rulers or the Sabahans themselves. This is treacherous and a blatant disregard for democracy and the welfare of the legitimate people of Sabah.

And those who collaborated and tolerated Mahathir’s initiative have equally committed treason.

As reported, the surreptitious project by Mahathir took place just two weeks before the 1994 state election and it was obviously a citizenship-for-votes scheme. It cannot be a legal process as how Tunku agreed to the idea that the Chinese and Indians be given citizenship just before achieving Independence.

According to what transpired at the RCI, 40, 000 blue identity cards were signed within a month for Muslim immigrants, mostly Indonesians and Filipinos, for the purpose of voting for UMNO in the 1994 Sabah state election. This could only be the tip of the iceberg.

The election scam, according to political observers, indisputably proves there is an ongoing plot involving the federal government, the NRD and the EC to cheat – making the whole electoral process a mockery.

Leaders who have been illegitimately elected

As revealed at the RCI, new illegitimate voters were created by giving them MyKads or temporary receipts to be planted as voters. They were rounded up in a house and taught how to vote for BN. They were bribed and sent to constituencies which were marginal to carry out the dishonourable deed to illegally vote.

This was ostensibly their perfected modus operandi to win elections. If UMNO could do this in Sabah they could also have done this in other Malaysian states.

If so, the country is seemingly governed by leaders who have been illegitimately elected and the whole country needs a RCI to look into this matter. And of course by virtue of this scam in Sabah – there must be a political contagion effect – the present UMNO-BN government can be considered as illegitimate and should not be allowed to continue.

It should be replaced by a non-partisan caretaker government immediately until the electoral rolls are fully clean before the next general election could take place.

Allowing the influx of illegal immigrants into Sabah was a measured move by UMNO to re-engineer the population of the state to reflect Muslim dominance from its native Christian majority origins at the founding of Malaysia in 1963.

Statistics from a 2010 census of Sabah’s population showed an abnormal 390 per cent increase from 636,431 citizens in 1970 to 3,120,040 citizens in 2010, more than double the national population growth of just 164 per cent.

Currently, about 28 per cent of Sabah’s 3.2 million-strong population are foreigners, numbering at 889,000 people. The issue of illegal immigrants has become an issue among Sabah natives who feel that the state has been deprived of its sovereignty by foreigners to the extent that some are calling for the secession of Sabah from Malaysia.

UMNO is rotten to the core

The rot in race relations in the country only started when Mahathir took over as prime minister in 1981. And today UMNO is rotten to the core all because of its legacy – corruption, racism and abusing religion to achieve its goal in defending its superficial ‘Ketuanan’ political deportment. Mahathir, being the longest serving prime minister, had failed the Malays with his preposterous race-based polices that have not encouraged the majority Malays to compete with the other races.

This has made the majority Malays lag behind other races, destroyed UMNO and wrecked BN. UMNO today has lost half its popularity and all other BN component parties have almost become irrelevant. It is not that the Malays are losing power but UMNO is, as the Opposition on the other political divide is equally represented by majority Malays.

Seeing their imminent downfall it will not be a surprise if they embark on corrupting the electoral process in the whole country as what they have done in Sabah.

Will this whole disgusting episode be written in our history books for our future generations to recite? Is this immoral modus operandi to win elections also happening in Selangor and other states?

What have MCA, MIC, Gerakan, PPP and other BN component parties got to say about Mahathir questioning Tunku’s decision to give Indians and Chinese citizenship prior to the nation’s Independence? No UMNO leaders, including the Prime Minister Najib Razak, have thus far reproached Mahathir for his choking remarks.

And to escape from his ‘illegal exercise’ Mahathir is conveniently equating what Tunku did in the past to the ‘citizenship’ given by his team to illegals in Sabah – which includes terrorists – and using foreigners to be ‘planted’ as voters to favour UMNO in the state.