MIC deputy president Dr S Subramaniam's “irresponsible” call for stateless Indians to register with the Special Implementation Task Force (SITF) shows the BN government's lackadaisical approach to a very serious and long-drawn problem, an opposition MP said today.
PKR vice-president N Surendran (right) has questioned the need to outsource this crucial task to the SITF again, which he said had “failed miserably” to resolve the woes of stateless Indians.
Subramaniam, who is also SITF chairperson, made the call today, saying there was no reason for those who migrated to Malaysia before 1957 and born after 1957 to be without a MyKad.
Surendran, who is the MP for Padang Serai, noted in a press statement that SITF has been around since 2010 but has become a zero-impact "political fig-leaf and pretense by the Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak in order to grab Indian votes in GE13".
Instead, he said, the government could simply order the National Registration Department (NRD) to do its job properly, as it has a “legal and statutory duty” to ensure all Malaysians are issued proper identification documents.
"The NRD has the funds and resources to tackle the problem. Why is the BN government outsourcing this crucial task to a failed and incapable body such as the SITF?
"The indifference of Najib, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (left) and the BN leadership to stateless Malaysians is the great scandal and tragedy of modern Malaysia.
“We call upon Najib Razak and the BN government to urgently resolve this longstanding crisis and end the misery of stateless Malaysians," Surendran said.
For no reason, other than a bureaucratic failure, he said, hundreds of thousands of Indian Malaysians were living in legal limbo - unable to work, get an education or have access healthcare and government aid.
"Their children are also consequently denied the MyKad and condemned to a life of suffering and poverty in the fringes of our society.
"A large number of Chinese Malaysians and East Malaysians also face the same problem," Surendran added.
PKR vice-president N Surendran (right) has questioned the need to outsource this crucial task to the SITF again, which he said had “failed miserably” to resolve the woes of stateless Indians.Subramaniam, who is also SITF chairperson, made the call today, saying there was no reason for those who migrated to Malaysia before 1957 and born after 1957 to be without a MyKad.
Surendran, who is the MP for Padang Serai, noted in a press statement that SITF has been around since 2010 but has become a zero-impact "political fig-leaf and pretense by the Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak in order to grab Indian votes in GE13".
Instead, he said, the government could simply order the National Registration Department (NRD) to do its job properly, as it has a “legal and statutory duty” to ensure all Malaysians are issued proper identification documents.
"The NRD has the funds and resources to tackle the problem. Why is the BN government outsourcing this crucial task to a failed and incapable body such as the SITF?
"The indifference of Najib, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (left) and the BN leadership to stateless Malaysians is the great scandal and tragedy of modern Malaysia.“We call upon Najib Razak and the BN government to urgently resolve this longstanding crisis and end the misery of stateless Malaysians," Surendran said.
For no reason, other than a bureaucratic failure, he said, hundreds of thousands of Indian Malaysians were living in legal limbo - unable to work, get an education or have access healthcare and government aid.
"Their children are also consequently denied the MyKad and condemned to a life of suffering and poverty in the fringes of our society.
"A large number of Chinese Malaysians and East Malaysians also face the same problem," Surendran added.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.