A recent diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks has a rather ominous entry that pinpoints the then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad as being the perpetrator of a citizenship-for-votes scam, with the alleged direct involvement of the then Election Commission chief.
The cable stated: “During their discussion, Hussin claimed that (former EC head) Rashid admitted his direct involvement in UMNO's shadowy 1990s push to assume political control of the East Malaysia state of Sabah. During that decade, UMNO granted citizenship and Malaysian Identity Cards (ICs) to over 600,000 foreign migrant workers (predominantly Muslims from Indonesia and Mindanao) in Sabah, in exchange for their votes in state assembly elections (ref B). UMNO-affiliated parties subsequently took over all of Sabah's state assembly seats. According to Hussin, Rashid "admitted to personally issuing over 60,000 fraudulent Malaysian ICs in Sabah," to help UMNO assume political control there. Hussin told us Rashid characterized his Deputy EC Chairman, Wan Omar, as "an UMNO member who is anti-reform."
WikiLeaks pinpoints Mahathir, Umno and EC in Sabah's infamous Project M
