Project IC is the name used in Malaysia to describe the allegation of systematic granting of citizenship to immigrants (whether legal or otherwise) by giving them identity cards and subsequently its current iteration, the MyKad.
[4] The project, in its widespread and intensive form, is suspected to have begun in the early 1990s after the entry of United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) into Sabah politics.
[6] There was even one instance of Harris Salleh openly admitting to carrying out and planning to overwhelm the demography of Sabah in favour of Muslims.
[5] During the Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrants in Sabah in 2013, Harris Salleh also stated that the issuance of identity card and granting of citizenship to refugees were done legally in accordance with the Federal Constitution and the relevant United Nations charter.
The 1986 Sabah riots ensued in shortly after the results were announced to bring down the party president, Joseph Pairin Kitingan, as chief minister.
They realised a great potential in altering the demography in their favour since most immigrants into Sabah were Muslims from Indonesia and southern Philippines.
The main point of contention when comparing the statistics for 1960 and 2006 is with regards to the sharp increase of "Malays", as well as the large number of "Other Bumiputras".
However, after 2005, BN decided to do away with the rotation system, giving the post to UMNO's representative, led by Musa Aman.
In 1999, a petition was made to nullify the results of the 1999 state election for the constituency of Likas based on the thousands of dubious names found on the electoral roll.
The seat was won by Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) candidate, president, and former chief minister, Yong Teck Lee.
[10] The judge presiding the petition, Justice Muhammad Kamil bin Awang, ruled in favour of the petitioner and declared that the 1999 election result for Likas a nullity.
[10] In 2007, the former Sandakan district chief Hassnar Ebrahim made a statement confessing being involved in Project IC.
[5] DR M. It has been said that the project was a secret policy of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, in particular the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), to attain political domination in the state using the votes of these immigrants.
[10] In response to a 2007 Parliamentary Select Committee, popular Malaysian news blog Malaysia Today alleges that UMNO had made a deal with the government of Libya and the Abu Sayyaf militant Islamic group in the Philippines to bring in 1 million new Muslim voters from Philippines into Sabah.
[13] Former Parti Keadilan Rakyat vice-president Jeffrey Kitingan alleges that there are 600,000 immigrants with ICs out of an estimated 1.7 million foreigners in Sabah.
[13] In May 2008, Member of Parliament (MP) Lim Kit Siang tabled a motion to set up a Royal Commission to investigate the problems relating to illegal immigrants in Sabah.
However, senior Sabahan politician Chong Eng Leong argued that similar committees had been set up in 2000 and 2006 without much results.
On 1 June 2012, Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that the federal government has agreed to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate problems related to illegal immigration in Sabah.
Political commentators have observed that the RCI appears to be a knee-jerk reaction to the defection of several prominent Sabahan BN politicians, who resigned in protest only a few days earlier because of the federal government's reluctance to deal with Sabah's immigration problems.