Stateless Indians product of racism in officialdom

YOURSAY 'Indonesians and Bangladeshis can get MyKads within three months, but not the Indians. And still MIC wants to help BN win the elections.'

Unending, inexplicable agony of the stateless
Swipenter: I can understand what these stateless Malaysians are going through because when in the past, I applied for my IC (identity card) the officer tried to give me a red one even though my mother had all the papers in order.

All my elder siblings were issued blue ones. Though my mother only had one year of education, she knew what a red IC meant along with all the implications. She made such a fuss there and then, so that in the end I was given a blue one, which is my birthright anyway.

Both my late parents were born and bred here and were citizens. To date, I can only guess why the officer tried to pull that trick on me and my mother. That incident has stuck with me all my life.

It has led me to strongly believe in equal citizenship, equal opportunity and equal treatment for all under the law.

Anonymous_3ec6: I had the same problem as my father's name was wrongly spelled in my birth certificate and it took 11 months to have it corrected.

It was in 1970 and luckily I had the education to pursue this and got it corrected, but during that time I had been denied a teacher's training course because of my red IC.

Sam_296f: I was also a victim in 1970 of holding a red IC because I could not produce my parents' birth certificates as they were separated after I was born.

Anonymous #04243331: The plight of the stateless people has to be resolved without any further delay.

All political parties vying to take over Putrajaya should come out in the open to state their stand. That will truly reflect their frankness and honesty in championing the cause of the downtrodden Indians.

Wanderer: Half a blooming century, how can we feel proud when there are still so many among us who are stateless? Move your ass, Umno-BN, you are a shame to the nation. Are you going to continue depriving my brothers to be one of us?

Enlightened: This is pure racial discrimination. It seems like many of these people who had been left without documents are orphans. Religion teaches us to help the underprivileged. Denying them citizenship is purely the work of Satan.

Abuminable: This is the faceless, nameless horror of evil stonewalling as bureaucratic banality and business-as-usual.

Humans who wield unwholesome power over others by parroting ‘official policy' instead of going the extra mile to assist a fellow human can pray 5,000 times a day pointing their skullcaps at Mecca or Timbuktu, but they will never make it through the gates of truth.

Dex: This reminds me of the time when I was overseas studying in the 70s. I had difficulty even renewing my Malaysian passport because the Malaysian High Commission wanted my father's citizenship produced. This is the red tape introduced by the mini-Napoleons.

Bootsie: Any person who belongs to a sane religion would not do such a thing as this is happening in front of our eyes.

These are irreligious bigots who are faithless and misguided, and filled with satanic vibes, to deny people their basic rights to become citizens of a country in which they were born. It is utterly disgusting and shameful and an inhuman act of the worst kind.

Changenow: Most of the stateless people are from estates, largely illiterate and poor. The nearest NRD (National Registration Department) offices would have been 30 miles away.

Most of them would have been eligible under operation of law. But due to their illiteracy, lack of guidance, mistakes in birth certificates and ICs and lack money to meet the expenses, have left their status to fate.

The government or the MIC never took any initiative to solve these problems. After 55 years of independence, we still have citizenship problems for those born here.

Without citizenship, these people would have been denied jobs and education and these would have repeated for their descendants.

The Chinese did not have much of a stateless problem because they were mostly living in towns and had easy access to NRD.

Anonymous #46317055: It is time to give due recognition for those born in this country.

Jus soli - those who are born of this land should have more rights than those who have migrated here, regardless of whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims; currently Muslim immigrants get easy approval for citizenship and clearly that's not right.

T Sundaram: Indonesians and Bangladeshis can get MyKads within three months, but not the Indians. And still MIC wants to help BN win the elections.

Pemerhati: The ‘unending inexplicable agony of the stateless' Indians is easily explainable. The problem persists because the officers of the Umno-controlled government, who are supposed to do the paperwork to give them blue MyKads and citizenship have been brainwashed by the Nazi-like propaganda of BTN (Biro Tatanegara) which is housed in the PM's Department.

This racist and bigoted PM then tries to fool the people with false and meaningless slogans like ‘1Malaysia' and ‘Janji ditepati'.

Not too long ago, PAS discovered that large groups of ineligible illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries were secretly being given MyKads in remote locations by government officers who had previously been denying the locally-born Indians their blue identity cards and citizenship for decades under one pretext or another.

The discriminatory behaviour of the BTN that has brainwashed the government officers is comparable to the Nazis and they are a real disgrace to their race, religion and country.

Anonymous #33877536: The government just doesn't want to accept these people as citizens, that's all. If the departments are run by one particular race, what do you expect?

That's the problem in this country, all the government agencies are 99 percent of one particular race. Pakatan Rakyat must change this policy, or else it is going to be the same.

Raja1949: For me it's simple, blame MIC for this. What have they been doing all these 55 years? Aren't they supposed to represent the Indians?

P Dev Anand Pillai: All this can be solved if the Umno government had the will, but just because it affects mainly the Indian community which is "dispensable", they couldn't be bothered.

Because even if nothing was done, the Indians gladly regard themselves as Umno's fixed deposit of votes. Now, after being awakened from their long slumber, they are beginning to realise where their blind allegiance has led them.

Indians will only be given respect if they themselves have self-respect. Up until the day an Indian thinks of himself as an equal to a Malay, nothing will change.

But the path towards equality has been laid, it is up to us to lay the bricks. - Malaysiakini