What is Project IC?
"Project IC" — also known as "Project Mahathir" — refers to the alleged systematic granting of identity documents and citizenship to large numbers of foreign nationals, primarily from the Philippines and Indonesia, in exchange for political support for the ruling federal coalition. The scheme is alleged to have been conducted from the 1980s onward and to have fundamentally altered the demographic composition of Sabah.
The Royal Commission of Inquiry
In 2012, a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) was established to investigate the illegal immigrant issue in Sabah. The commission's report, released in 2014, confirmed that citizenship and identity documents had been unlawfully granted to large numbers of foreigners. Witnesses testified to a systematic scheme involving senior government officials, civil servants, and political operatives.
Consequences for Sabah
The consequences for Sabah have been devastating. The estimated population of illegally documented immigrants — now numbering in the hundreds of thousands — has placed enormous pressure on public services, driven up crime, strained the social fabric, and fundamentally altered the political landscape of the territory. Indigenous Sabahans have been effectively outvoted in their own homeland. The RSNB-GIE considers this demographic engineering to be a crime against the Sabahan people that must be addressed as part of any just resolution of Sabah's status.