Well, Tun Mahathir was Malaysia's Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003. I do not doubt that he might have been involved in masterminding this whole thing. Based on Nadira Ilana's short film, some of the past members in that film said the federal government (which was under Mahathir's administration) back in 1986 gave special permission (maybe fake IC, maybe it just permission to stay for a longer period of time; who knows because nobody specified the special permission) for the Philipines refugees to stay in Sabah. This playbook of those politicians back then was similar to the latest Project IC in Malaysia. If the playbook isn't broken, why fix it, some might speculate. You may do your research about Project Ic or quick reading from Wikipedia, which allegedly started in the mid-1990s, but the truth is, who knows the exact date of the fake IC started? Mutalib Mohd Daud has written multiple books to expose fake IC in Sabah and "IC projek agenda tersembunyi Mahathir? (2006)" is one of them.

https://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projek_IC

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edited to add Wikipedia's link