Kota Kinabalu (Dec 23, 2008): Former Member of Parliament, Datuk Philip Yong Chiew Lip, today urged the Home Minister to start a formal investigation on illegals having Mykad and the misuse of Malaysian passports by irresponsible persons or elements, including terrorists.

"I feel that it is a threat to our national security and the image of Malaysia in the eyes of the world," said Yong, who was also the ex-Deputy President of SAPP.

"When I was Member of Parliament, I brought up the issue of false ICs and the book written by Mutalib M.D. on 'IC Palsu, Merampas Hak Anak Sabah' in parliament. However, the matter was not taken up by the authorities seriously and no forthcoming action by them.

Datuk Philip reiterated that according to Mutalib's book, revelations of how illegals got their ICs on a massive scale led to the legalisation of many illegal immigrants in Sabah.

Since then, Sabah's racial composition changed and led to a different political scenario in Sabah.

"The source for acquiring a Malaysian passport is having a Malaysian IC, now called MyKad," added Yong.

The Mykad problem was also highlighted by SAPP Members of Parliament, Datuk Eric Majimbun and Datuk Chua Soon Bui

(Also referring to the front page news in Daily Express on Dec 23, 2008 as follows)

Police are cooperating with Immigration authorities and Interpol to investigate Malaysian passports being misused by irresponsible persons or elements, including terrorists.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Tan Sri Ismail Omar, said the matter was found out by IGP Tan Sri Musa Hassan during an Interpol conference in Russia recently and this had marred Malaysia's image.

Interpol is the world's largest international police organisation.

"In that recent Interpol conference, they brought up (that) quite a number of Malaysian passports are found to be used by irresponsible people in other parts of the world.

"So we are looking into that .... who are the people, if local syndicates are cooperating with international syndicates, what are they doing, what is the objective of the misuse of passports, and how many are actually involved," Ismail said after officiating a crime prevention seminar here organised by the Sabah police contingent.

He said if the matter was not taken care of it will give an impression that there are many syndicates in Malaysia that are out of control.

Asked if passports involved were genuine, Ismail said: "We don't have the details.. We are working with Interpol to get more accurate data, how many are genuine and how many may be false."

Earlier in his speech, he said progress in information technology, which has made the world a borderless one, has made crime fighting more challenging, whereby criminals and their henchmen could communicate very quickly and thereby hamper law enforcement efforts.

Meanwhile, asked about crime statistics for this year, Ismail said crime was still under control in that the rise in recorded cases was just above two per cent given the rise in population.

He said a "smart partnership" was needed among police, other law enforcement agencies, non-governmental organisations and the public to prevent and fight crime.

Besides that, he said, the strength of the police force would be increased from 100,000 personnel to 150,000 personnel by 2011.

"The number has to be increased to reduce the population to police personnel ratio. For example, in Petaling Jaya, the ratio is one policeman to a few thousands of population ... This is considered high so it has to be reduced," he added.