BN prefers to keep Sarawak natives ‘stateless’

The only reason thousands of natives in interior Sarawak are not voters is because BN is afraid that if they are issued ICs, they will vote against the coalition.

KUCHING: Barisan Nasional’s reluctance to issue identity cards (ICs) to genuine Sarawakians of native communities in the rural interior is because they are fearful that these people will vote against them.

According to state PKR vice chairman See Chee How, it works to BN’s benefit to keep these natives ‘stateless’.

“The most deprived Sarawakians are in the rural areas. That is why you have the majority of Penans, Kayans, Kenyahs, Ukits, Sabans and other native communities do not possess ICs and therefore cannot vote.

“These are the people who are facing problems of logging and land-grabbing. So if they become voters, you know where their votes will go as they have been marginalised, suppressed and oppressed,“ said See, who estimated there are thousands of them who are stateless.

See, who is Batu Lintang assemblyman, said an attempt two years ago to register the Penan, Kenyah and Kayan communities living in the interior was cancelled just after two months because BN was afraid.

“We try to help and put a lot of efforts, and even court judges were willing to go to the rural areas to let the rural people do the swearing of the Statutory Declaration so that it will be easier for them to get their ICs.

“But it was implemented just for two months, and then abolished. The whole process was stopped because the BN government was not willing to register these people,” said See.

He said the BN’s fear was the fact that many of these natives had been displaced by the state government land policies.

Cumbersome process

See said previously the National Registration Department used to send senior officers to the rural areas.

“Now the department does not do it. They want the rural people to come down. They take their own pictures and the pictures and particulars of their siblings and all those kinds of things and show them to the officers of the department.

“They must have witnesses including nurses who delivered them to accompany the applicants, “he said.

It is not unusual in Sarawak if you find Sarawakians who are even more than 80-years-old who could not apply for ICs just because they could not bring along with them witnesses such as nurses or midwives who delivered them about 100 years ago.

The department made it so cumbersome that it discouraged the rural people to make ICs as many of them have to travel several days on foot or by boats to reach the nearest towns.

See said that these problems (of Sarawakians without ICs) could only be solved when Pakatan Rakyat forms the federal government after the general election.

“We will relax some of the cumbersome requirements,” he added.