Minister's statement as good as 'no' to stateless folk

 

ADUN SPEAKS | Minister, please understand the issue before speaking up! I welcome the statement issued by our Minister of Home Affairs Hamzah Zainudin to resolve the issue of statelessness within one year, with a condition that those who are stateless must submit proper documents and evidence to prove that they were born in Malaysia, or that their parents are Malaysians.

Minister, stop beating around the bush. Your statement is as good as saying "no" to their applications. Your statement shows that you don't understand the real problem behind this issue.

The issue you are talking about has already been on the table for the past 50 years. Your government was the ruling government in that period and the current prime minister was the home minister during the Pakatan Harapan federal administration. What was he doing for those 22 months?

I'm overseeing the MySel operation in Selangor, where this unit has been working tirelessly to resolve many IC/BC and stateless issues within our capacity. I'm proud to say, we have successfully resolved hundreds of cases where we have brightened the future of many families.

However, there are thousands of files seeking citizenship still pending and lying in my office due to high levels of bureaucracy. We know exactly the issues and problems behind every application. Indeed, it is a serious issue that needs to be addressed without any further delay.

Many NGOs that are championing child rights and stateless people could be your strategic partners to help you resolve this issue effectively. A smart partnership with these people could be fruitful if the goal is to find genuine solutions.

There are many factors and causes for the statelessness issue. Let's look at some of the factors:

1. Many stateless people are uneducated because, without proper documentations, they are not allowed to register with schools. When they are not educated, how do you expect these people to understand the ever-complicated procedures and instructions that are to be fulfilled?

There are no Indian or Chinese officers placed in the Bahagian Kewarganegaraan (Citizenship Division) of the National Registration Department (NRD) to translate or help this category of people. The SOPs are a nightmare for these people.

2. Many applications were rejected because they failed the Bahasa Malaysia proficiency test conducted during the interviews. Logically, if they are not educated, how do you expect them to be proficient in Bahasa Malaysia?

Yes, I know that this is one of the most important aspects of the citizenship application but we are not solving the underlying causes of this problem.

3. Many of them do not have the necessary documentation because they were born before independence. In fact, those born after Merdeka too face this problem. Some do not possess the necessary documentations due to poverty, being neglected children, unregistered marriages, born at home, fear of being exposed, or fear of the hassles in fulfilling the process.

4. Many cannot prove their relationship with their parents because the parents have abandoned them since young or the parents are untraceable. There are instances where the parents themselves do not have the necessary documents or citizenship papers.

5. The law is discriminatory against children born by Malaysian mothers and they will not be given citizenship unless the child has a Malaysian father. This is equivalent to the deprivation of the rights of Malaysian mothers.

6. The level of bureaucracy in NRD, where the procedures and the requirements are too rigid.

As a minister, you should address these issues before giving an ultimatum of one year. I wondered if you were joking. You are just adding one more year to an issue that is haunting many 'Malaysians'.

There are many people who have died while waiting for their applications to be approved. These are people who were born in Malaysia before independence, but could not get citizenship for various reasons.

According to Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1949, everyone has the right to a nationality and no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of their nationality nor denied the right to change their nationality. Anyway, do you understand your power under Article 15A of our Federal Constitution on this matter?

Granting citizenship to children born in Malaysia after independence is enshrined under Article 14 (1), 14 (1)(b), Section 1(e), Part II of the second schedule of our Constitution if they didn't obtain citizenship from other countries.

However, you have ignored many of these issues and I hope you will seek a proper consultation with stakeholders to ensure that the promise made in Parliament will be fulfilled efficiently.

In order to help the situation, I would like to give a few suggestions to ensure that the statelessness issue is resolved quickly.

1. Immediately grant citizenship to children below the age of 21 who were born in Malaysia after independence under Article 14(1)(a) and (b), Section 1(e), Part II through the power bestowed to the government under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution.

2. Grant citizenship under Article 15A to children born in Malaysia to unregistered married couples, children born to parents holding red IC and also to children born to Malaysian mothers.

3. Establish a special committee to monitor the applications, the processing, and approval of citizenship. This committee should act as an appeal committee for the cases rejected by NRD.

4. Establish an evaluation committee to evaluate and process all applications without proper or incomplete documentation.

5. Allow statutory declarations signed by any two doctors, teachers, state assemblypersons, village heads, community heads, councillors, estate management, or registered organisations as part of the proof that the applicant was born in Malaysia.

6. Lower the Bahasa Malaysia proficiency requirements to help those who are uneducated. If necessary, organise some short-term tuition classes to help them succeed in the process.

7. Review the composition of the officers in every NRD division, especially in the citizenship division, so that non-Malays are placed there to assist the other ethnicities. Let them facilitate by using a soft approach.

Since Indians form the majority of people who are stateless and affected by this issue, I urge the minister to engage with Indian MPs and assemblypersons regardless of political affiliation in finding an amicable solution for the future of this community.

If you can come up with a 'recalibration' programme in order to allow undocumented foreign workers to be absorbed as documented workers, why can't you introduce a similar exercise or programme to grant citizenship legally to people who were born in Malaysia and are contributing to the country?

Why give them one year to find you when you can amend your SOPs and the laws to solve this issue once for all in a proactive manner? Please stop eye-washing and get the job done immediately.

Prove that you are better than your predecessors! If I were you, within one year, statelessness will be history. Can you do this, Mr Minister?

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GANABATIRAU VERAMAN is the Selangor state executive councillor for Socioeconomic Empowerment, Development, and Caring Government. He is also the DAP assemblyperson for Kota Kemuning. - Mkini

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.