'PM lying on figure of stateless Indians'

PKR vice-president N Surendran has lambasted Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s claim that there are only 9,000 stateless Indians in Malaysia.

“The prime minister’s statement is a dishonest and disgraceful attempt to play down the number of stateless Malaysians of Indian descent; the tiny figure of 9,000 is baseless and illogical,” Surendran said in a statement.

Najib (right, in photo) had yesterday denied Pakatan Rakyat’s claim that there are 300,000 stateless Indians in the country, alleging the figure is significantly lower at 9,000, during the recently-concluded MIC general assembly.

The prime minister made the estimated based on the number of people that had approached the National Registration Department (NRD)’s counters, said Surendran, adding that the counters set up during the MyDaftar campaign can be “easily overlooked” as it was only held for a few weeks.

“The prime minister is mocking and lying to the Indian community,” lamented Surendran.

Surendran further condemned Najib for not taking any effort to solve the issue of stateless Indians to “end this great injustice”, saying that the solution to the problem is to reach out to the affected people throughout the country and register them systematically.

He said issue has become endemic among Indian Malaysians, in both urban and rural areas, claiming that the those affected are deprived of proper schooling, employment opportunities and basic amenities.

The PKR veep (right) cited examples from the case of B Reshina earlier this year, who was not allowed to sit for the SPM examinations as she did not have a MyKad despite the fact that she was born in Malaysia.

“Najib and his government have flagrantly breached the federal constitution by refusing to issue blue ICs to our stateless Malaysians.

“We call upon Najib and his government to stop denying the enormity of the problem and to end the long suffering of the stateless Malaysians immediately,” added Surendran.

Chua: Indians should no longer trust BN

Meanwhile, fellow PKR vice-president Chua Jui Meng said the issue should have been long resolved and the problem was “more than enough a reason for (the Indians) to change the federal government”.

“This problem should have been resolved long ago and therefore the Indian community in Malaysia cannot continue to trust the Umno-led Barisan Nasional federal government,” he said in a statement today.

Chua, a long-serving health minister under BN previously, questioned why the stateless Indians are still denied their application for citizenship despite having lived here for years and being able to speak fluent Bahasa Malaysia.

“Why must their application for citizenship be rejected or their files left in the cupboard to collect dust?

“Why were 600, 000 Muslims from Indonesia and the Philippines in Sabah given citizenship and bumiputera status to vote in Malaysia?” he said, claiming that a great number of Filipino Malaysians in Sabah are unable to even speak the national language.

Chua (left), who is also the Johor PKR chief, urged the Indians to instead ensure Pakatan Rakyat wins the next election as PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim has promise citizenship to all stateless, should the coalition form the federal government.

PKR declared earlier last month that they will be holding a rally this month at the NRD headquarters in Putrajaya to pressure the government into resolving the problem of stateless Indians in the country.

The rally, which was to be held on Dec 5, was later rescheduled toDec 12 due to overwhelming support.