KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16  — Tan Sri Harris Salleh refused to take the stand at the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) in Sabah today where he was called in to respond to claims of his alleged involvement in “Projek IC”.

The former Sabah chief minister had already testified once in the early days of the royal panel probe on the state’s illegals problem but had at the time denied the existence of the citizenship-for-votes initiative.

According to news portals Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider, Harris was called in a second time after former Sandakan district chief Hassnar Ibrahim alleged this morning of his role in the controversial “Projek IC”, which has been blamed for the state’s bloated foreign population.

“The witness said he will not be rebutting (Hassnar’s testimony),” conducting officer Manoj Kurup informed the commission led by former Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Steve Shim, according to Malaysiakini.

The news portal added that Harris was seen in the Kota Kinabalu court complex earlier this morning, despite his sudden decision to back out.

During his testimony earlier, Hassnar alleged that in 1985, he had received instructions from Harris to meet with former deputy home minister Tan Sri Megat Junid Megat Ayub for the purpose of increasing efforts to distribute blue ICs to Muslim foreigners.

Harris administered Sabah between 1976 and 1985. 

The RCI was set up on August 11 last year to investigate claims that illegal aliens in Sabah were awarded citizenship and placed on the country’s electoral roll in an illicit bid to keep the ruling government in power.

When announcing its formation, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had also made known the commission’s eight terms of reference, including investigating Sabah’s abnormal spike in population.

Members of the panel include chairman chairman Tan Sri Steve Shim Lip Kiong, Universiti Malaysia Sabah vice-chancellor Professor Datuk Seri Dr Kamaruzaman Ampon; former Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Henry Chin Poy Wu; former Sabah state government secretary Datuk Kee Mustafa; and, former Sabah deputy chief minister and former Sabah attorney-general Tan Sri Herman J. Luping.

The RCI was initially scheduled to conclude on March 21 but was interrupted by the Sulu invasion of Lahad Datu in Sabah. It subsequently gained royal assent for an extension and will now terminate on September 21.

At the hearing yesterday, a retired banker alleged that it had been Sabah’s founding father Tun Datu Mustapha Harun who masterminded the controversial “Projek IC”.

Mat Swadi Alwi, Bank Pembangunan Kota Kinabalu’s former branch manager, told the panel that Mustapha had initiated the scheme to help Barisan Nasional’s (BN) USNO to wrest state power from Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) in the 1990 polls.

According to The Star Online, efforts to “Malaysianise” foreigners by turning them into voters under the Projek IC initiative had kicked off between 1988 to 1999 and had been under the knowledge of then deputy home minister Datuk Seri Megat Junid Megat Ayob.

“My job was to increase the number of Muslim votes in constituencies where Usno was weak.

“Not all of them were immigrants, some were voters from the military, police or teachers from peninsula Malaysia,” Mat Swadi was quoted as saying in another news report by Malaysiakini.

Explaining the initiative, the former banker later revealed that of the 20,000 new voters registered on the roll that year, some 15,000 were illegals.

He added that these voters were then used to increase votes from these so-called Muslim Bumiputeras at constituencies where USNO needed a boost, such as Papar, Inanam and Tuaran.