Stateless persons and Umno’s denial syndrome

The government does not categorise them. To categorise them will mean to expose the problem and that means trouble.

COMMENT

By N Ganesan

There is an extremely large number of Malaysian who were born here, lived here and who would die here, but who had been thought fit not to be considered citizens of the country, in direct contravention of their natural right.

They are instead awarded “Red IC” status. These people are the politically maimed people of Malaysia. They carry with them this disability wherever they go and for as long as they live in Malaysia. There could be several hundred thousands of such politically maimed people in the country.

And as a way to obscure the problem, the government just does not categorise them. To categorise them would mean to expose the problem and that means trouble. It is a non-starter. In not categorising these people as stateless, the Umno/BN government is saying that these people are not stateless. If they are not stateless then why are they not given their citizenships when they meet all justifiable requirements.

Are these people stateless or not? This is a fundamental question that we need a clear answer for.

According to the UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, which is almost 50 years old, the following is the definition for stateless persons: “Stateless person” means a person who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law.”

All red IC holders in Malaysia are not considered as nationals by Malaysia  under the operation of its law. They do not have the same rights as those considered nationals.

Most red IC holders in Malaysia are not nationals of any other state either. So by this UN definition of the stateless persons, all Malaysian red IC holders who are not nationals of any other country are clearly stateless persons in Malaysia. That is the answer we get when we seek credible sources to answer this question.

But this is not the way red IC holders are considered in the Umno/BN scheme of things.

Red IC holders are not here nor there. If these people are not nationals and they are not stateless –  just what are they?

The Malaysian government is using this halfway position of red IC holders to intentionally cover up the truth of the magnitude of the stateless persons problem in Malaysia. Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak says there are only 9,000 stateless persons by Umno/BN’s narrow and convenient definition of stateless persons.

What is equally if not more worrisome is this denial syndrome.

It is a bigger problem than the problem of statelessness itself. Given the weak position that Umno and BN find themselves in, and their sore need for their fixed deposits to come back to them, it would behoove them to accept the problem squarely, come clean and take measures to resolving this statelessness problem for what it truly is.

They should address this problem on the basis of sound principles so that they would be seen to be atoning for their past failures and being sincere about their commitments to their fixed deposits. But they just do not seem to be able to do that. They continue to be senselessly manipulative and opportunistic.

If you consider the myriad of problems the country faces and the inability of Umno/BN to deal with them in effective ways, it only tells about what we can expect under the continued rule of Umno/BN, even with the prospect of a hung Parliament.

There would just be more cover-ups, more lies and more manipulation just to maintain status quo. Status quo at any price seems to be their unsaid imperative.

The true Malaysia would never be able to stand up.

N Ganesan is Hindraf’s national advisor.