‘No orders from bosses’
EX-NRD director says issuing ID to foreigners was of his own accord
KOTA KINABALU: A former Sabah National Registration Department director, once held under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for his involvement in the issuing of thousands of identification documents to foreigners, said his actions were of his own accord.
Datuk Abdul Rauf Sani said he did not receive any instructions from his superiors to issue Malaysian identity cards and birth certificates to Filipino, Indonesian and Pakistani nationals in Sabah.
“I am a government officer and any instructions have to be written,” he testified on the fourth day of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on Sabah’s illegal immigrant problems.
Rauf, currently the Finance Ministry’s Totalisator Board chief executive, had served as Sabah NRD director between 1990 and 1992 and was detained under the ISA for 60 days in 1996.
Questioned by Conducting Officer Azmi Ariffin, he admitted that about 50,000 identity cards were issued to Muslim Filipino, Indonesian and Pakistani nationals who had applied for them using the NRD’s HNR5 and HNR6 forms that were respectively for those who had lost or damaged their documents.
Azmi Ariffin: Those ICs were given out to foreigners without any supporting documents (such as birth certificates)? Abdul Rauf: Yes. To another question, Abdul Rauf said he saw no difference in approving identification documents for foreigners and members of Sabah’s ethnic communities living in remote areas such as Ulu Pensiangan and Kampung Buaian and Terian in the Crocker Range, some of whom did not have birth certificates.
He said one way for those without birth certificates to apply for identity cards was to use statutory declarations affirmed by a village head or Native Chief.
Questioned further by Azmi, he said there was a group of 17 NRD officers at the department’s state headquarters here tasked with processing and issuing identity cards to foreigners.
Azmi: Was a function of this group to issue 200,000 birth certificates to foreigners? Abdul Rauf: Yes. To a question by Commissioner Tan Sri Herman Luping, Abdul Rauf said he was aware that the issuing of these identification documents would result in a change of Sabah’s voter demographics.