Minister: Sabah will never forget Dr M's Project IC

PETALING JAYA: Sabah will never forget Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s "Project IC" which granted citizenships to foreigners, says Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau (pic).

The Science, Technology and Innovation Minister said that Dr Mahathir had not apologised for the controversial Project IC during his tenure as prime minister, adding that "Sabah will never forget".

The United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) president added that Dr Mahathir did not address how he would repair the Project IC damage in his speech at Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia's annual general assembly on Saturday (Dec 30).

"He has never apologised for this. His speech in the AGM also did not address how he will repair this damage. In fact, his speech yesterday did not touch on any Sabah and Sarawak issues at all — just like how he neglected us when he was prime minister,” said Tangau.

He added that it looks like the trend of Dr Mahathir treating Sabah and Sarawak as "unwanted orphans" would continue should the former premier and Pakatan Harapan win the next general election.

"For this, the Sabah people will continue to reject Dr Mahathir and his allies in Sabah — DAP, PKR and Warisan," said Tangau.

Tangau also countered Dr Mahathir’s promise to reduce the number of foreign workers by five million if the Opposition wins in the next general election.

He said that there are only 500,000 people currently listed as jobless.

"There is also no guarantee that locals may want to take up the dirty, dangerous or difficult jobs vacated by the foreign workers, so to me, this is just a populist promise with no actual plan or strategy," he added.  

Tangau also said that should Mahathir become PM, he hopes that he would not launch Project Sabah 2.0 to give citizenship to the 4.5 million migrant workers as his solution to reduce the number of foreign workers.