Satu kes kad pengenalan paslu setiap dua minggu - Pengarah JPN Sabah di RCI

Inkuiri Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja (RCI) hari ini diberitahu, sindiket kad pengenalan palsu di negara ini berleluasa berdasarkan kekerapan satu kes dilapor setiap dua minggu. 

Memberi keterangan di Mahkamah Tinggi Kota Kinabalu, Pengarah Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN) Sabah, Ismail Ahmad ketika menyentuh isu pendatang asing mendapati ramai pemegang kad pengenalan palsu menggunakan alamat Sabah

"Sindiket IC palsu memang ada. Dia (pemegang kad palsu) di Kuala Lumpur, pakai alamat Sabah. Setiap dua minggu ada kes dilapor," katanya sambil menambah kebanyakan kes membabitkan kad pengenalan bermutu tinggi.

Saksi ke-163 itu, berkata pengesanan kad pengenalan meragukan biasanya  dikesan apabila mereka menukar resit kad pengenalan sementara kepada kad pengenalan.

"Apabila ada IC yang tidak betul datang ke JPN, kita semak dan jika mendapati dia tidak layak kerana kad pengenalannya meragukan, kita tarik balik IC itu.

"Seseorang yang tidak layak tidak boleh dapat IC," katanya depan Ketua Panel inkuiri berkenaan yang juga bekas Hakim Besar Sabah dan Sarawak, Tan Sri Steve Shim Lip Kiong.

Pengarah Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) Sabah, Datuk Mohd Idrus Ismail pula mencadangkan pengundi di seluruh negara didaftar semula bagi mengemas kini maklumat , sekali gus membersihkan daftar pemilih.

"Daftar semua sekali, lagi bagus. Tapi kita tak buang daftar lama. Mungkin ada yang sudah menetap di merata-rata tempat," kata saksi ke-164 itu tetapi mengakui tindakan itu memerlukan implikasi besar..

"Implikasinya besar. Kita kena pinda Perlembagaan. Ia tidak boleh dilaksanakan dalam masa cepat. Ia perlu kajian tepat, memang agak serabut," katanya.

Ditanya sama ada SPR sedia meletak gambar pengundi dalam semakan daftar pemilih di laman web suruhanjaya itu, Mohd Idrus berkata ia boleh dilaksanakan dengan kerjasama dengan JPN.

"Letak gambar kita kena kaji balik,  dan perlu ada perjanjian dengan JPN dan SPR," katanya yang memegang jawatan itu sejak 1 November 2004.

Inkuiri bersambung jam 9.30 pagi esok. 3 Julai, 2013.

Jusuf never criticised me, says Anwar calling news reports a fabrication

Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today claimed that former Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla never made critical statements about him.

Anwar said he had communicated with Jusuf and the latter informed him he had never given an interview to any Malaysian blogger or publication.

Anwar told reporters at the parliament lobby that Jusuf has since sent four objection letters to two dailies – Berita Harian (BH) and New Straits Times (NST) - over reports claiming that Jusuf had criticised Anwar for breaking a pre-election agreement with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Jusuf’s purported criticism of Anwar was first carried by an Umno blog and was subsequently picked up by BH and NST.

On the Administration of Religion of Islam (Federal Territories) Bill 2013, Anwar accused the Cabinet of behaving impulsively in amending it.

He said the issue should have been discussed in the Cabinet before it was brought to parliament.

“So far, we don’t know the status of this bill. It’s obvious there’s a divide within Barisan Nasional (BN),” said Anwar referring to the conflicting statements by Cabinet members on the issue.

“It’s proof that it wasn’t debated thoroughly in Cabinet, it was either done impulsively or decided without a consensual discussion,” Anwar added.

The former deputy prime minister said during his time in Cabinet, the tabling of a Bill could be delayed and the discussion would be continued if there were any disputes or protest from Cabinet members.

To date, two Cabinet members - Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz and Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low – have objected to the Bill.

The BN components of MIC, MCA and Gerakan, have all objected to the Bill, which allows for unilateral conversion of minors to Islam.
 
The Malaysian Bar, DAP and Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) have also objected to it. - July 4, 2013.

Election petitions to hold court with ink, bribery and murder drama

Among the bundles of affidavits, notes, testimonies and other bits of evidence which make up the 39 election petitions filed by Pakatan Rakyat following GE13 lies the story of K. Murugan.

Or more accurately, his gruesome murder.

His death only merited a dash of ink in the newspapers in the days leading to May 5, and if not for the tireless efforts of his family and PKR's Vasantha Kumar, it would have been a footnote by now.

Vasantha, the candidate for Tapah, remembers Murugan working tirelessly for him in the tough battle against MIC's Datuk M. Saravanan. He organised political rallies and worked the ground sufficiently that he got noticed.

He received death threats and was asked to stop campaigning for the Opposition.

He disregarded the threats and did not think twice about leaving his home early on May 1 after receiving a call. That was the last time he was seen alive. His body was found in a river, weighed down by scrap metal. His hands and feet were bound.

Vasantha said: “We believe that Murugan was murdered to intimidate the voters. He was well-known locally and it was his job to organise ceramahs for me."

This is probably the first time in Malaysian history that murder has been raised as a reason to nullify an electoral result. This is also the first time in history that so many election petitions have been lodged by Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

A total of 58 cases has been filed in the peninsular, nine in Sabah and another two in Sarawak by the June 12 deadline.

Given the long and testy period of campaigning and the host of allegations of cheating and vote-tampering in the run up to polling day, it is not surprising that a record number of petitions have been filed.

Also driving this election petition campaign is a deep sense of grievance at being robbed of the ultimate prize: control of Putrajaya.

Besides the murder of Murugan, the opposition's main grounds in seeking to nullify the electoral results are faulty indelible ink and bribery. Indeed, most of the petitions filed by PR were related to the indelible ink, according to R. Sivarasa (pic), one of the lawyers representing the opposition coalition.

“The Election Commission (EC) committed fraud when the indelible ink failed,” Sivarasa said.

“The silver nitrate was absent, so the ink didn't work,” Sivarasa said in explaining why the ink was easily washed off.

In Parliament, Tan Sri Shahidan Kassim, the Minister in the Prime Minister's  Department, said that the ink really contained a food colouring instead of silver nitrate, the chemical compound that ensures the ink stays on the skin for at least 72 hours.

PR will also file civil suits against the EC for failure to conduct polls fairly.

Sivarasa added that the alleged irregularities that were included in PR’s petitions involved the “suspicious voting pattern in the early voting ballots”. PR questions the validity of postal votes and those submitted by the members of the police and armed forces.

“The ballot boxes are kept for five days without supervision from election observers,” said Sivarasa, pointing to the possibility of vote-rigging.

The petitions also refer to the allegations of vote-buying at various places, including the Bagan Datok seat held by Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Ahmad Zahid had been accused of spending RM2 million, 10 times the allowed sum for election expenses, after he was caught on video admitting that he offered RM100 in cash and rice to 24,000 people.

Meanwhile, a BN source said the ruling coalition in their 21 election petitions had among other things cited intimidation of voters in Johor and the rejection of some ballots which were tainted with the indelible ink.

"These ballots were rejected because they were tainted with the ink. If they were allowed, then the results would have swung in our favour," said the man from Umno.

The ink was meant to identify those who had voted and to prevent them from voting a second time. But some voters used the ink on their finger to mark the ballot paper.

An interesting petition was filed by former Federal Territories Minister Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin against PKR's Nurul Izzah, the woman who defeated him narrowly. He accused her of having  'disturbed voters' by urging them on a news website not to vote for him.

There was also a petition filed in the Batu parliamentary seat where BN are questioning the eligibility of Parti Keadilan Rakyat's Chua Tian Chang (better known as "Tian Chua") to contest the election.

BN's Dr Dominic Lau who filed the petition believes that Chua should not have been allowed to contest the election due to a previous conviction.

Lawyers believe that most of the election petitons will be unsuccessful because of the high threshold attached to overturning an election results, and the court's loathing to defeat the will of the people without clear evidence.

Art Harun, a lawyer and commentator, recently spelt out in an article that it was insufficient to simply question the efficacy of the indelible ink or the EC's incompetence in the ink fiasco.

The questions which the court would be interested in are these: did the foul up in the ink allow groups of voters to vote twice and did that mistake impair the result of the election in that constituency.

Similarly in the case of the election petition in Tapah, the opposition have to show evidence that voters were intimidated by Murugan's murder and, therefore, voted out of fear for BN.

It looks like High Court judges who have been appointed as election dispute arbitrators will have to work overtime to dispose cases. - July 4, 2013.

Nizar wins suit against Utusan Malaysia

The Kuala Lumpur High Court awarded former Perak menteri besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin RM250,000 today as damages in his suit against Utusan Malaysia over the WWW1 car registration number issue.

Counsel Fitri Asmuni told The Malaysian Insider that Nizar was awarded general and exemplary damages after judge Rosnani Saub found the paper liable for defamation.

Fitri said that Nizar is in Australia and had been informed by text message of the verdict.

The lawyer added that in her decision, the judge found that the report was not a true publication but had been spun, adding that it was defamatory to Nizar.

She also ruled that Utusan’s defence of justification, fair comment, qualified privilege and journalism, had failed.

Nizar had sued Utusan over their report on his tweets regarding the WWW1 registration number. In his statement of claim, Nizar had said that the defendant had implied that Nizar had tried to incite the people to hate the Sultan of Johor.

Nizar claimed the statement also meant that he had alleged that the Johor ruler had misused public funds to pay RM520,000 for the plate number.

“The judge noted that Nizar had not questioned where the Sultan got the money from, but had just said that it was a waste of money,” Fitri said.

"However, Justice Rosnani did not award aggravated damages," Asmuni said.

The court also ordered Utusan Malaysia to pay RM30,000 in costs.

Meanwhile, in the case where Nizar had lost his suit against TV3, Fitri said that they would be filing the notice of appeal by tomorrow.

In April, Nizar lost his RM50 million defamation suit against TV3 over a tweet that the Sultan of Johor had allegedly used public funds to bid for a car registration number.

Judge Datin Yeoh Wee Siam said the private broadcasting station had succeeded in their defence based on justification (truth).

“On this ground alone, the plaintiff’s (Nizar) claim ought to be dismissed,” she said in her judgment.

This is the latest in a list of defamation cases that Utusan has lost or settled recently.

In February, the Court of Appeal upheld a High Court decision ordering Utusan to pay RM200,000 in general and aggravated damages to Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng over a defamatory article.

Lim who is Bagan member of parliament and Air Putih assemblyman, had sued Utusan for defaming him in an article entitled, “Kebiadaban Guan Eng” published by the Bahasa Malaysia daily on Dec 20, 2011.

In January, Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim won a suit againt Utusan after High Court judge VT Singham had found that the daily had defamed him in two articles.

In that judgment, the court ruled that the articles, which had implied that Anwar had intended to legalise homosexuality, was a gross mistaking of facts in complete disregard to the plaintiff’s reputation.

The court also found that the news article was lacking in responsible journalism and that the defendants took high risk in publishing them on the front page, without verifying the truth. - July 4, 2013.

Nik Aziz backs deposed Morsi, says people power will bring him back

Despite being toppled from power, Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi will have his opportunity to bounce back, said PAS spiritual leader Datuk Seri Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat.

In a statement, he expressed sadness and sympathy for the ongoing chaotic scenes in Egypt and described it as the country's darkest moments repeating itself.

"I am confident that the Egyptian people will not keep quiet over the developments. Morsi was elected as president in a legal election, not because of electoral fraud."

Nik Abdul Aziz likened Morsi's situation to that of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who was overthrown on April 11, 2002, but later returned to power three days later after the people protested.

"Chavez reclaimed the presidency on the back of people power and it is not impossible for Morsi to do the same. Coup d'etat and dictatorships are not the people's choice in this era."

Nik Abdul Aziz said he watched a press conference by the Egyptian military announcing the seizure of power and it was reported that the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb, supported them.

"This is a sign that the military is not confident of their strength and decided to use an Islamic scholar to convince the people.

"There are always Islamic scholars being used to fight the Islamic movement. The thickness of the Quran studied is no guarantee that the Islamic scholar is well-versed in politics.

"The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh is a post which is currently filled by Ahmed El-Tayyeb, but the knowledge he has is also possessed by other people," Nik Aziz said.

He added that it was not certain that the position is secure and only Allah has the right to appoint other people to the post at any time, and that the same goes for the position of mufti.

"Whoever is appointed to the post should not assume that it is theirs for life. There are too many people who have become tools for secular groups to fight Islam.

"It is time that they were cast aside without any attention being paid to them whatsoever. Just as the river Nile flows eternally, so will the Egyptian people's pulse continue." – July 4, 2013.

Man admits to marrying Sabahan for citizenship

An immigrant from the Philippines admitted today to the Royal Commission Inquiry (RCI) that he married a Sabahan woman for the sole purpose of obtaining citizenship.

During questioning, Abdul Latif Jumani, the 161st witness told the RCI panel at the Kota Kinabalu High Court that he even divorced his previous wife just so he could marry a local.

“You divorced your Filipina wife to marry a Sabahan, just so your position as a Sabahan was more solid?” asked investigator, Jamil Aripin.

“Yes,” Abdul Latif answered.

Abdul Latif said he came to Sabah in 1972 at the age of 14 with his family. He claimed to be from the Ubian islands in the Phillipines.

He had divorced his Filipina wife of 10 years, under the pretext that she could not give him a child.

He then married his current wife in 2004 and they have two children, aged eight and six.

Asked how he obtained the identity card, Abdul Latif said he went to a house in Sembulan and met a man who took down his details.

"I gave him four photos of myself, then filled up a form, where I also put my thumbprints. I paid RM5 and five months later was given a blue identity card,” he told the panel.

He said when he went to register his child’s birth at the National Registration Department he was told that his personal details were similar to that of a Pakistani.

He said the department cleared the air when they interviewed him and established that he was Abdul Latif.

However, the department made him use a temporary receipt for eight years while they sorted out the confusion. - July 3, 2013.

Witness turns up with false IC at Sabah RCI

The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah uncovered a forged identity card during today's proceedings.

The forged document belonged to witness Ishak Us'luan, 46, who was on the stand. Ishak was born in Timor, Lambata, Indonesia.

Conducting officer Jamil Aripin informed Ishak there was no record of his IC in the National Registration Department's databank.

"This is forged, you were cheated," said Jamil who then confiscated the IC.

A stunned Ishak was then taken by the investigating officer to the Indonesian consulate to apply for a new passport.

Ishak told the commission earlier that he had arrived in Tawau in 1983 and had worked in a factory.

He said his wife and three children held Indonesian passports.

He later moved to Kunak where in 1984 he met a Bugis man Usman Lajat from Semporna who offered him and 17 others blue identity cards for RM40 each.

“Usman filled the forms and took our thumbprint. Two months later he came back with the blue ICs,” said Ishak.

However, Ishak said he later lost the blue identity card but could not get a replacement.

"I tried but I could not get a new one. And then, another man said he could get a MyKad for me for RM500, so I paid him and I got my card," he said.

However, Ishak said he could not recall the name of the individual who helped him.

Ishak also admitted that he even tried to register to vote but his application was rejected.

Jamil told the five panelists at the RCI that a check with the list of voters in the Election Commission showed his name was not registered there.

“His IC isn’t in the list of voters,” said Jamil to the RCI panel.

Ishak also explained that for the five years he has used the fake identification card, he has never had any problem as he has not dealt with banks and the police.

“I don’t have a bank account and I never faced a cop,” he said.

Almost 28 percent of Sabah residents are immigrants, with estimates of about 889,000 being from the Philippines and Indonesia.

The RCI on illegal immigrants started last January and revealed testimonies from Filipinos and other immigrants that mapped out how they received their blue identification card in just a few years after arriving in Sabah and had also voted in elections.

It is being held at the Kota Kinabalu Court Complex. - July 3, 2013.