‘Runners’ and MyKad scam
HERE’S a test.
Put on plainclothes, bring along a big brown envelope and try to look confused at the entrance of the Sabah Federal Complex in Kota Kinabalu.
Chances are people loitering about the steps will try to make eye contact and offer their “services” with faint whispers. Civil servants who work at the complex will tell the touts are foreigners with inside contact at the two busiest departments that deal with National Registration and Immigration.
Others will say these are runners for locals who have links with the two departments that look after two most sought after documents — the MyKad and passport.
The two documents, fake or otherwise, have long been linked to scandals, scams, lies and everything not nice. Last week, the Sabah Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) director Datuk Hishamuddin Hashim revealed that five senior National Registration Department (NRD) officers were among nine suspects held in investigations into a syndicate involved in helping people who were not eligible to acquire the MyKad.
They included a deputy director, three branch heads and a former staff. Foreigners from India, Pakistan and Indonesia were also among those nabbed in a swoop codenamed “Ops Easy Card”.
MACC recorded statements from 32 people from all over Sabah to facilitate their probe into the syndicate. Investigations revealed that, for a fee, the syndicate helped foreigners obtain Malaysian citizenship illegally by issuing dubious recommendation letters and late birth registration certificates.
These procedures are normally done at the state Federal Complex, where touts loiter every working day as if it is their office. For a fee, they take charge of people’s documents, set up meetings with officers in the two departments, take numbers, stand in queue and even take photographs on the side of the entrance, complete with a mobile backdrop.
It may not be the hub for the syndicate offering fake identity cards, but the very reason of them being allowed to run their operations in the open is mind-boggling.
It begs the question of why the touts, both foreigners and locals, are allowed to do what they do just steps away from the two departments at the complex. In March this year, state NRD director Ismail Ahmad revealed a syndicate selling fake MyKad was crippled after a foreigner, using a fake identity card, tried applying for a Malaysian passport at the Immigration Department.
At the time, the department had seized six fake identity cards and discovered, in the course of their probe, that a syndicate had sold the documents for up to RM10,000 each. Ismail said many foreigners were duped into buying the fake documents and were convinced it was the “real deal”. This was evident as many of them tried to open bank accounts using the falsified documents.
But the problem is not restricted to the office often called “mini Putrajaya”. In late August, a foreigner admitted to purchasing a fake MyKad for RM300 in Sandakan and used it over the last two years in Port Dickson. The Filipino had even used it at government hospitals without getting caught. His luck ran out during an operation carried out by the Immigration Department, where 44 illegal immigrants were detained in Op Ikrar on Aug 26. Just last week, a foreigner registered a MyKad that did not belong to him when trying to purchase a mobile phone number in Kota Kinabalu.
The list goes on. With many cases linked to fake documents there have been many calls for stronger resolve — even capital punishment — which comes with the act of treason, that has made local headlines in the last few days.
Parti Bersatu Sabah secretary-general Datuk Johnny Mositun said such acts by locals who help foreigners get citizenship illegally should be considered as treason.
The perennial problem needs to be nipped in the bud, Mositun said, adding that the problem had since spread to others states. Echoing a similar sentiment was his Barisan Nasional counterpart, United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun and Murut Organisation secretary-general Datuk Donald Mojuntin.
Mojuntin said a new law or amendment on treason needs to include people involved in issues related to citizenship in Malaysia.
The severest penalties must be imposed on the people who willing to sell-out the country for money, he said. In lauding the MACC for its crackdown to stem the syndicate involved in offering MyKad to foreigners, Mojuntin said it was worrying, as it was not known how many such illegal documents were out there across the country. Loopholes exist, he suggested. So do the “runners” at the state Federal Complex.
The writer is NST Sabah bureau chief
Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/10/%E2%80%98runners%E2%80%99-and-mykad-scam
Put on plainclothes, bring along a big brown envelope and try to look confused at the entrance of the Sabah Federal Complex in Kota Kinabalu.
Chances are people loitering about the steps will try to make eye contact and offer their “services” with faint whispers. Civil servants who work at the complex will tell the touts are foreigners with inside contact at the two busiest departments that deal with National Registration and Immigration.
Others will say these are runners for locals who have links with the two departments that look after two most sought after documents — the MyKad and passport.
The two documents, fake or otherwise, have long been linked to scandals, scams, lies and everything not nice. Last week, the Sabah Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) director Datuk Hishamuddin Hashim revealed that five senior National Registration Department (NRD) officers were among nine suspects held in investigations into a syndicate involved in helping people who were not eligible to acquire the MyKad.
They included a deputy director, three branch heads and a former staff. Foreigners from India, Pakistan and Indonesia were also among those nabbed in a swoop codenamed “Ops Easy Card”.
MACC recorded statements from 32 people from all over Sabah to facilitate their probe into the syndicate. Investigations revealed that, for a fee, the syndicate helped foreigners obtain Malaysian citizenship illegally by issuing dubious recommendation letters and late birth registration certificates.
These procedures are normally done at the state Federal Complex, where touts loiter every working day as if it is their office. For a fee, they take charge of people’s documents, set up meetings with officers in the two departments, take numbers, stand in queue and even take photographs on the side of the entrance, complete with a mobile backdrop.
It may not be the hub for the syndicate offering fake identity cards, but the very reason of them being allowed to run their operations in the open is mind-boggling.
It begs the question of why the touts, both foreigners and locals, are allowed to do what they do just steps away from the two departments at the complex. In March this year, state NRD director Ismail Ahmad revealed a syndicate selling fake MyKad was crippled after a foreigner, using a fake identity card, tried applying for a Malaysian passport at the Immigration Department.
At the time, the department had seized six fake identity cards and discovered, in the course of their probe, that a syndicate had sold the documents for up to RM10,000 each. Ismail said many foreigners were duped into buying the fake documents and were convinced it was the “real deal”. This was evident as many of them tried to open bank accounts using the falsified documents.
But the problem is not restricted to the office often called “mini Putrajaya”. In late August, a foreigner admitted to purchasing a fake MyKad for RM300 in Sandakan and used it over the last two years in Port Dickson. The Filipino had even used it at government hospitals without getting caught. His luck ran out during an operation carried out by the Immigration Department, where 44 illegal immigrants were detained in Op Ikrar on Aug 26. Just last week, a foreigner registered a MyKad that did not belong to him when trying to purchase a mobile phone number in Kota Kinabalu.
The list goes on. With many cases linked to fake documents there have been many calls for stronger resolve — even capital punishment — which comes with the act of treason, that has made local headlines in the last few days.
Parti Bersatu Sabah secretary-general Datuk Johnny Mositun said such acts by locals who help foreigners get citizenship illegally should be considered as treason.
The perennial problem needs to be nipped in the bud, Mositun said, adding that the problem had since spread to others states. Echoing a similar sentiment was his Barisan Nasional counterpart, United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun and Murut Organisation secretary-general Datuk Donald Mojuntin.
Mojuntin said a new law or amendment on treason needs to include people involved in issues related to citizenship in Malaysia.
The severest penalties must be imposed on the people who willing to sell-out the country for money, he said. In lauding the MACC for its crackdown to stem the syndicate involved in offering MyKad to foreigners, Mojuntin said it was worrying, as it was not known how many such illegal documents were out there across the country. Loopholes exist, he suggested. So do the “runners” at the state Federal Complex.
The writer is NST Sabah bureau chief
Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/10/%E2%80%98runners%E2%80%99-and-mykad-scam
HERE’S a test.
Put on plainclothes, bring along a big brown envelope and try to look
confused at the entrance of the Sabah Federal Complex in Kota Kinabalu.
Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/10/%E2%80%98runners%E2%80%99-and-mykad-scam
Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/10/%E2%80%98runners%E2%80%99-and-mykad-scam
HERE’S a test.
Put on plainclothes, bring along a big brown envelope and try to look
confused at the entrance of the Sabah Federal Complex in Kota Kinabalu.
Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/10/%E2%80%98runners%E2%80%99-and-mykad-scam
Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/10/%E2%80%98runners%E2%80%99-and-mykad-scam
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