In a period of just 30 years, the number of Malays in Sabah went up by over 1,500 percent
Malays are not the natives of Sabah. They are the predominant race only on the peninsula.

Sabahans are puzzled as to how there could be such an increase, especially when there was no mass movement of people from the peninsula. Vanitha Nadaraj reveals how it was the work of former Prime Minister Mahathir. He used Indonesian and Philippine immigrants to stay in power.

35 year old Indonesian Liyah is preparing dinner in Kota Kinabalu. She left her family and a life of poverty in Sulawesi 18 years ago, she entered Sabah using a social pass.

In the early 1990s when she was working in a factory, she heard that people were giving out free Malaysian birth certificates.

So she went to get one for herself, because that would mean she could get a powerful Malaysian identity card or IC.

Others were applying for it, so I applied as well. In was in the 90s when many people were applying. Not just one person was applying. Thousands were applying. - I am not sure if they gave me the birth certificate so that I would vote for them. The other said that was the case. But I never voted, and I never will.

A division leader from Mahahir’s party UMNO, in the interiors of Sabah knows what that was all about.

He was helping Indonesians and Filipinos get Malaysian birth certificates and ICs, and also making them members of his party.

He refused to give me to get his name, fearing it would jeopardize his political career. So let’s call him Irvan.

At that time, the Muslims Malays were a minority in Sabah. So migrants were given IC cards so they would vote for the Barisan Nasional. It did not matter if they were Indonesians or Filipinos, as long as they were Muslims. They had to join UMNO. That is why there are doubts as to whether the UMNO division leaders here now are truly Malaysians. The registration department says they are and their IC cards are genuine. But how can someone who only recently arrived in Sabah, get an IC card, and then two years later become an UMNO branch leader?

Sabah was under the Christian party PBS in the early 1990s, and UMNO under the leadership of Mahathir wanted to get rid of them.

Sabahans were not joining his party. Many locals here have a age-old resentment of anything and anyone from the peninsula.

So the strategy was to get the immigrants to join.

This project was made public in February 2000, through a witness at a trial challenging the election results of a district in Sabah.

The court accepted evidence showing that ICs were issued to immigrants and they voted as directed by the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional, then under Mahathir.

The voting scandal became know as Project IC or Project M- M for Mahathir.

Simon Sipaun speaks to me freely about this project. He’s now the retired state secretary - the highest ranking civil servant in Sabah.

Originally, of course, this was encouraged by Tun Mustapha because of the Muslim factor. I think, condoned by the federal government to create hegemony of the Muslim population to ensure that the Muslim-led government will always stay in power in Sabah.

The scandal is now making news in Malaysia, with Sabah officials and the Human Rights Commission demanding to truth be told.

The government, however, to this day remains silent.

Present and former government officials rejected all my requests to speak to them on this issue.

However from our investigations we learnt that the giving out of ICs did not start with Mahathir.

Their where two similar projects used by the Muslim party Berjaya in the 1980s and the Christian party PBS in the early 1990s.

Irvan, a division leader from Matahir’s party UMNO says there is also another method of getting votes for the Barisan Nasional.

It involves the issuing of “receipt ICs”, which are slips of paper saying that the person is eligible to apply for an IC.
There are many illegal immigrants here, so when the elections are near give them the right documents and they are happy. We say ‘this is yours, vote. Vote UMNO. Vote Barisan!’ Our former head of the Registration Department did this. He picks up the illegal immigrants, gives them the IC documents. Then the day before the election we go to the plantations where they are working illegally and pick them-up in a bus. We place them in a house, about 200 to 300 of them. We give them the documents and send them to the polling stations. Then we send them back to the plantations.

This method, he claims, is still being used. It has helped the Barisan Nasional stay in power and they are in no hurry to abandon it.