KOTA KINABALU: Indonesian Ishak Us’luan who obtained a MyKad for RM500 five years ago was informed yesterday that the identification document was a fake.
Ishak who testified before the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the presence of illegal immigrants in the state was advised by conducting officer Jamil Arifin to immediately seek assistance from the Indonesian Consulate here to obtain a travel document so that he can go back to Indonesia.
“I will ask the investigating officer to bring you to the Indonesian Consulate so that you can apply for a passport and go back to Indonesia, apply for a passport and enter Sabah legally,” Jamil said.
Jamil told Ishak, “we have checked with the National Registration Department (NRD) and it was confirmed that there is no record of this MyKad. So this means that you are in Sabah illegally.
Ishak, who was the 157th witness to give evidence to the Royal Commission of Inquiry proceeding, had earlier
told the panel that he paid RM500 for the identification document.
As he never used the MyKad for any Government business or to open a bank account, he never knew that the identification document was fake.
According to Ishak who is from Timor in Indonesia, he had entered Sabah illegally in 1983 and had worked in Kunak for a spell until his employer advised him to go back to Indonesia, apply for a passport and enter the state legally.
He heeded the advice and re-entered Sabah using the a passport issued under the name Ishak Laga and went to Kunak where he worked in several jobs until now.
Ishak told the panel that in 1984, while working at a logging camp, a man by the name of Osman Razak came to their camp and offered to help 17 of them to get Malaysian identity cards.
“We agreed and after going through the process of filling in the forms and putting down our thumb prints, we paid him RM40 each to cover his transportation expenses. Three months later he came back to the camp and handed over our Blue Malaysian identity cards,” he said.
Ishak added that Osman had told them that the identity document was issued on the condition that they would go out and vote during the general election.
“But as we are in the camp all the time, we do not know when election is held,” he said, adding that he finally went and registered as a voter early this year.
Ishak also told the panel that he lost the blue identity card and tried to apply for a replacement at the Tawau (NRD) office but to no avail.
That was when he asked a man from Semporna to get the replacement for him and paid the individual RM500 for his efforts.
Jamil who tendered Ishak’s MyKad as evidence pointed out to the panel that the discrepancies in the identification document, and said that they had requested NRD to check the authenticity of the document.
He said that the NRD confirmed that there was no record of the MyKad.
Ishak, who is married with children, looked lost when Jamil told him that his MyKad was a fake.