The government should take the cue from the naturalisation processes practised by many countries to address prevalence of statelessness among Indian Malaysians, says the Indian Rights Action Team (Niat).
This includes countries such as the Ubited Kingdom, which uses a point-based system, or the United States of America, which judges citizenship applications by the applicant’s length of stay in the country prior to the application, Niat secretary-general Arun Dorasamy (right) said today.
“It is a secret box,” Arun said of Malaysia’s system. “The thing is, how do you justify an application that takes 50 years to process?
“We do not have a definitive system... when things become subjective, with reliance on budi bicara (discretion), one single 'Little Napoleon' can make all the decisions,” Arun told a press conference.
He said civil servants may have been taught by the Biro Tatanegara (National Civics Bureau) that providing citizenship to non-Malays would erode Malay privileges, but such abuse of the application process would be prevented if the system was objective.
This includes countries such as the Ubited Kingdom, which uses a point-based system, or the United States of America, which judges citizenship applications by the applicant’s length of stay in the country prior to the application, Niat secretary-general Arun Dorasamy (right) said today.“It is a secret box,” Arun said of Malaysia’s system. “The thing is, how do you justify an application that takes 50 years to process?
“We do not have a definitive system... when things become subjective, with reliance on budi bicara (discretion), one single 'Little Napoleon' can make all the decisions,” Arun told a press conference.
He said civil servants may have been taught by the Biro Tatanegara (National Civics Bureau) that providing citizenship to non-Malays would erode Malay privileges, but such abuse of the application process would be prevented if the system was objective.
Issue raised with Unicef as well
This proposal on objectivity, Arun said, were among some of the solutions to the problem of stateless Malaysians that Niat proposed at its meeting with a consultant with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) earlier today.
The proposal was also made in the fourth edition of the NGO’s booklet spelling out its demands for the next general election, which includes eliminating statelessness among Indian Malaysians by Jan 1, 2014.
Among other proposals, the 75-page booklet also calls for children in Malaysian orphanages to be given citizenship unless it can be proven that they were not born in Malaysia.
In addition, it says that if either of a child’s parents is a Malaysian citizen and paternity could be established via DNA testing, regardless of other papers they may possess, the child must be declared a citizen.
Niat chairperson Thasleem Mohamed Ibrahim (above) dismissed the dispute between Pakatan Rakyat and government leaders on the number of stateless persons in the country as irrelevant political bickering.
“The bureaucratic process that is a hindrance should be relooked and the government should ensure a smooth and easy way out of this (statelessness). Whether it is 300,000,or 9,000 or 1,000, the numbers do not matter.
“As far as Niat is concerned, even if is only 10 people who have been deprived, we feel it is completely against the birthright of those concerned,” he said.
Arun added that there could not be any definitive figure on the number of stateless persons in Malaysia anyway, because they were not part of any database.
The proposal was also made in the fourth edition of the NGO’s booklet spelling out its demands for the next general election, which includes eliminating statelessness among Indian Malaysians by Jan 1, 2014.
Among other proposals, the 75-page booklet also calls for children in Malaysian orphanages to be given citizenship unless it can be proven that they were not born in Malaysia.
In addition, it says that if either of a child’s parents is a Malaysian citizen and paternity could be established via DNA testing, regardless of other papers they may possess, the child must be declared a citizen.Niat chairperson Thasleem Mohamed Ibrahim (above) dismissed the dispute between Pakatan Rakyat and government leaders on the number of stateless persons in the country as irrelevant political bickering.
“The bureaucratic process that is a hindrance should be relooked and the government should ensure a smooth and easy way out of this (statelessness). Whether it is 300,000,or 9,000 or 1,000, the numbers do not matter.
“As far as Niat is concerned, even if is only 10 people who have been deprived, we feel it is completely against the birthright of those concerned,” he said.
Arun added that there could not be any definitive figure on the number of stateless persons in Malaysia anyway, because they were not part of any database.
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