Seventeen-year-old Angeline May Soon’s dream to represent Malaysia in swimming competitions is now within sight.
This comes after Angeline (above, right) received her citizenship certificate yesterday, after an eight-year process of applying for it.
“I’m so happy and grateful to receive citizenship. I have been waiting eight years.
“As a swimmer, I was unable to participate in a lot of competitions due to citizenship issues.
“I would like to thank Malaysia, the prime minister (Anwar Ibrahim) and (Home) Minister Saifuddin (Nasution Ismail),” she said in a video posted on Saifuddin’s social media page.
In the post, Saifuddin said Angeline was one of the 9,000 citizenship applications he has approved, with around 130,000 more left undecided.
“Some of them have been facing this difficulty for more than 10 years. Many of their rights as citizens have been denied.
“I’m determined to resolve as many cases as possible,” he said briefly.
On June 11, Malaysiakini reported Angeline’s case - then using the pseudonym “May” - who expressed disappointment in not being able to participate in swimming competitions due to citizenship issues.
"As much as I want to go far to represent Malaysia, I can't go on due to problems with my citizenship," said the secondary school student from Penang during a press conference.
The teenager's biological mother was an Indonesian, while her father was a local. She has a birth certificate, in which only her mother's name is stated.
After Angeline's mother ran away, her father took care of the child until she turned five, until he, too, passed away.
Angeline’s statelessness rendered her ineligible to attain basic necessities such as free healthcare checkups at schools and free textbooks that her friends get.
Tedious application process
Due to mounting expenses, Angeline also faced a double whammy when she tried to earn some extra cash - but was unable to sell her artwork as she could not open a bank account.
After Angeline’s father passed away, Soon Poh Lean, 65, fostered the child according to legal provisions.
Soon said she had tried applying for Angeline’s citizenship under Article 15a of the Federal Constitution, which allows the registration of children as citizens under exceptional circumstances, but to no avail.
However, two days after Malaysiakini’s report, Soon received a call from a Home Ministry official to resolve the issue.
“He (the officer) said that he read the news and immediately found my contact number.
“It took Angeline less than one month after the call to get her citizenship. The verbal approval was given on June 27 and official approval on July 5.
“Yesterday, she received her citizenship certificate at the home minister's office,” she said when contacted, adding that her last appeal to the minister was on March 3.
‘Kudos to Saifuddin’
Meanwhile, MCA International Communication and Diplomacy Bureau deputy chairperson Neow Choo Seong, who previously lobbied for Angeline, extended his gratitude to Saifuddin for attending to the matter.
“I think the highlight is the effort by the minister himself and we hope that more stateless children will receive the same treatment by the government.
“Another thing would be to process applications quickly.
“We hope more innocent children get what they deserve like normal children,” Neow said. - Mkini
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