On Dec 8 last year, a stateless teenager identified only as CJ won a court battle to be recognised as a Malaysian citizen and to get a MyKad.
CJ - now 17 - had been trying to get his identity card since he was 12, but was denied - leading to his eventual court challenge.
According to Lawyers for Liberty, Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Alice Loke had ordered the offices of the home minister and the National Registration Department (NRD) director to issue a MyKad for CJ within 30 days of the latter’s application.
However, more than 30 days have passed since the court ruling, and Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) claimed on Monday that the authorities were making things difficult and allegedly refused to give the 17-year-old a MyKad application form.
Shortly after LFL raised the matter, the NRD denied stonewalling CJ.
Instead, it said it was attempting to deal with the issue of document fraud that the boy’s mother allegedly committed in 2008, when she applied for his birth certificate.
The case also involved an alleged illegal birth certificate issued by a hospital in Kuala Lumpur, which the NRD said has been blacklisted since.
Hence, the NRD said it must first carry out document correction and verification processes to comply with existing legal provisions and registration procedures before it can issue any identity documents.
Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail also said there are no issues complying with the court order to grant CJ citizenship, but the process must begin with the issuance of a valid birth certificate through late registration.
The NRD said that it gave CJ a checklist for the late registration of an identity card as part of the process to implement the court order.
LFL adviser, N Surendran, however, described the checklist for 62 documents and 24 categories of forms that CJ needed to fill as “sheer bureaucratic madness”.
One of the documents required CJ to be vouched for by a witness, including either an elected representative, employer, tribe leader, government officer, or professional.
CJ submitted his application on Tuesday, and LFL has decided not to pursue contempt charges against the Home Ministry and NRD.
Controversial fast-tracked citizenship
However, the hurdles the SPM student has had to overcome in obtaining citizenship are in stark contrast to the ease with which seven foreign-born footballers were given citizenship under the guise of having long-lost Malaysian heritage.
In the footballers’ case, Saifuddin had exercised his discretion to waive a requirement that they reside in Malaysia for at least 10 years before becoming citizens.
In fact, investigations by the International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) revealed that two of the players were allowed to sit for a citizenship test and granted MyKads within two days of entry permits into the country being approved.
The players were even considered to have passed their Bahasa Malaysia test despite admitting to Fifa that they don’t speak the language at all.
Meanwhile, the NRD did not appear to do due diligence on the supporting documents submitted by the players, namely birth certificates purporting that their grandparents were born in Malaysia.
Fifa found the documents to be forged, with one showing clear signs of tampering.
The football body also found that documents from the players themselves showed that their grandparents had no connection with Malaysia.
Neither Saifuddin nor the NRD have admitted to any wrongdoing in the footballer citizenship case, which the police have recently launched an investigation into after the Football Association of Malaysia finally lodged a police report.
Inaction after getting power
Both Surendran and LFL co-founder Latheefa Koya have lamented how difficult it is for ordinary people to get citizenship.
Surendran lamented that CJ should not have had to go to court to obtain his citizenship, blaming those in power for their lack of action in changing policies to accommodate the acquisition of citizenship for eligible individuals.
“Once upon a time, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim stood with me out in the street fighting for stateless people. That’s a matter of public record.
“And the prime minister promised me personally 10 years ago that the moment he becomes prime minister, he will resolve the citizenship problem for all those outstanding cases with a stroke of a pen... Where is that promise now?” asked Surendran at a press conference after CJ submitted his documents yesterday.
Meanwhile, Latheefa aimed fire at Pakatan Harapan, telling the coalition to cease its double standards.
“We are not scolding the subordinate officers of the NRD, who are following orders.
“But the problem is those who are in power, who have specifically put in their manifesto to get the power, that they will solve this statelessness problem, (but they are) still doing things the same way as those they complained of and (when they) changed power, they came back as ministers and are still misbehaving,” she said. - Mkini
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