Between 2015 and 2023, Wong Yee Lin submitted birth registration forms containing false details about the newborn babies to the National Registration Department (NRD) for the issuance of a certificate.
On April 23 last year, she pleaded guilty before Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court judge Azura Alwi, who sentenced her to a fine of RM10,000 or five months in jail if she failed to pay the fine.
A month later, 10 people were fined between RM700 and RM2,000 each by the Kuala Lumpur Magistrates’ Court for providing false information to obtain birth certificates and identity cards. Aged between 55 and 69, they pleaded guilty to the charges before six different magistrates in Kuala Lumpur.
Fast forward to January: Soliman Wan was born in 1974 and raised in Malaysia without citizenship, until two months ago, when he was issued a MyKad.
His parents, members of the Kenyah community in a remote Sarawak village, had been stateless since their own births due to the isolation of their settlement. As a result, they were unaware of the importance of proper identity documentation.
For more than three decades, he submitted several applications before his citizenship was approved on January 19 and received his MyKad 10 days later.
In June last year, seven foreigners - Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Garcés, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, João Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal, and Héctor Hevel - knowingly submitted birth certificates containing false information in their applications for Malaysian citizenship, MyKad, and passports.
It is now public knowledge that the birth certificates of these were “manufactured” by the NRD, and their applications for citizenship were fast-tracked by the same department.
For context, the NRD claimed that the birth certificates of their grandparents were issued after it had gathered “secondary evidence” that they were born in various parts of Malaysia, but the International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) had obtained the original birth certificates issued in Brazil, Argentina, and the Netherlands.
If the same law - the National Registration Act - had been applied to these seven, their MyKads would have been seized and their citizenship revoked. More importantly, they would have been prosecuted.
Double standards
But these seven are no ordinary Joes. At one time, they were so revered and valued that even the home minister “abused his powers” to fast-track their citizenship applications.
They are football journeymen - or, to put it bluntly, “mercenaries” - willing to sign and falsify documents to change their nationalities for a few shillings.
Their “Godfather” – someone in or connected to the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), after one debacle after another at football’s controlling body, Fifa, went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for redemption.
Acting president Yusoff Maqhadi described it as “a major war” to defend Malaysia’s footballing reputation, declaring that all resources would be used.
But they forgot the doctrine that those seeking equity must come with clean hands. It requires that anyone seeking equitable relief from a court must act with fairness, good faith, and without fraudulent conduct regarding the matter in dispute.
A moot point: Malaysia does not recognise dual citizenship. So, has the NRD seized the blue MyKads and has the Immigration Department revoked their passports?
The archives contain numerous anecdotal accounts of individuals like Soliman who have waited years - sometimes even decades - for their citizenship applications to be processed.
But in the case of the seven foreigners, it took just 45 days for their applications for birth certificates, MyKads, citizenship, and passports to be issued.
A case of NRD’s double standards? The answer is a resounding “yes”.
Distortion of justice
Malaysia’s citizenship system is no longer merely a bureaucratic maze - it has become a mirror reflecting the nation’s legal, moral, and ethical contradictions.
On one side, ordinary long-time residents like Soliman endure decades of humiliation, waiting for recognition that should have been theirs by birthright.
On the other hand, foreign footballers are ushered through the gates of citizenship in a matter of weeks, their papers “manufactured” by the very institution entrusted with safeguarding national identity.
This is not a clerical error. It is a deliberate distortion of justice. The NRD bent the rules for mercenaries in football jerseys while punishing elderly Malaysians for minor infractions, thus shredding the principle of equality before the law.
The doctrine of clean hands - so loudly invoked in court cases and international arbitration rings hollow when the state itself is complicit in fraud.
The hypocrisy is staggering: villagers in Sarawak are told to wait, plead, and prove their existence, while imported strikers are handed blue MyKads as if they were trophies.
The law, meant to protect the sanctity of citizenship, has been weaponised to serve expedience and political vanity. What does it say about a nation when its most sacred document - the birth certificate - is treated as negotiable currency in the marketplace of football?
Rigged system
Malaysia does not recognise dual citizenship, yet the silence over whether these passports and MyKads have been revoked speaks volumes. It suggests not oversight, but complicity. And complicity corrodes trust.
Every citizen who has fought for decades to be recognised now knows that the system is not broken - it is rigged.
The real scandal is not just about football. It is about the erosion of integrity in governance. If citizenship can be bought, bent, or bartered, then the very idea of belonging becomes meaningless.
Until the same law is applied without fear or favour - whether to a stateless villager or a foreign mercenary, the promise of justice will remain a hollow slogan, and Malaysia’s credibility will continue to bleed, not just on the football field, but in the conscience of the nation itself.
R NADESWARAN is an award-winning journalist whose journalistic career has spanned more than five decades. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
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