Even dying is tough when you don't have a birth cert - Bintulu MP

PARLIAMENT | Sarawak lawmaker Tiong King Sing (GPS-Bintulu) today lamented the difficulties faced by those who don't have birth certificates.

"Living is hard, dying is also tough because when they die they can't 'pass' because down there (in the grave) there is a judge too and they don't have birth certificates or any certificate," he said in the Dewan Rakyat.

Tiong said a policy must be formed to help solve this problem, adding that the issue of not having birth certificates was especially prevalent among Ibans living in the Sarawak interior.

Tiong also said the government needed to standardise the process of granting citizenship via Article 15A of the Federal Constitution.

He said there were inconsistencies in the Home Ministry's response to applications that had met all requirements.

He also claimed that 90 percent of citizenship applications he had backed did not receive a response.

"I hope the minister will not give syok sendiri (self serving) answers that are kong kali kong (empty)," Tiong (below) said.

 On solving the birth certificate problem, deputy Home Minister Ismail Mohamed Said said he would go to the ground with Tiong to advise the people living in Bintulu's interiors.

Ismail also that the government has since January 2020 put in place measures to fast track the processing of citizenship applications.

The deputy minister advised all Malaysians to make sure that their marriages were legally registered so as to make things easy when registering the births of their children. -Mkini