Fighting losing battle to get citizenship for stateless persons

Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy said the Citizenship Programme to resolve the problem of statelessness in the state under his care is fighting a losing battle.

He said the people who are seeking Malaysian citizenship are feeling “fatigued and fed up” with the bureaucratic process at the National Registration Department (NRD).

‘We can only help them, we cannot apply on their behalf when it comes to birth certificates and citizenship applications,” Ramasamy said at a press conference in George Town today.

“But due to endless waiting, the applicants are resigned to helplessness; the NRD is an unfriendly place where they are made to feel completely alienated,” he added.

Ramasamy said the NRD is one government department that needs a total revamp.

He urged Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to look into the matter instead of defending Prime Minister Najib Razak all the time.

“We notice that NRD is more keen on converting people; it will state the person's religion as Islam when this is not true,” Ramasamy said.

Presenting statistics for the programme, he said it had only managed to successfully resolve 44 out of 665 cases in Penang over the three years since it was set up; and another 19 are still pending.

Big implications

“This is not even a 10 percent success rate. Citizenship should be automatically given if the person is born after independence in 1957,” Ramasamy said.

“I feel very shameful that so many do not have citizenship; without this document, it will have big implications on people’s lives,” he added.

“For example, children with parents who do not have citizenship or are foreigners cannot go to school; this is a long-standing issue and there is no solution in sight,” he said.

Ramasamy, who is Prai assemblyperson, said many who are yet to obtain their citizenship are in their 60s and 70s, and have lived in Malaysia for generations.

However, they continue to remain stateless and it will be a “herculean task” to help resolve their problem, he added.

“I’m sorry that I do not have impressive figures to show; it is not that my officers are not working, they have been going to offices of assemblypersons in five districts to offer their assistance on this matter,” Ramasamy said.

“The NRD remains our greatest barrier; for example, we have 230 cases still pending with the department, and it's difficult already when we ask what is the status of the cases,” he added

“They always say it is with Putrajaya,” he said.

Due to these obstacles, Ramasamy said the programme will continue to help the victims, and will be organising a roadshow from May to reach out to stateless persons in the state.

The Citizenship Programme is being handled by Chiam Heng Hak (Northeast), Abdul Rahim Mohamed Nor (Southwest), Ketenasamy Krishnasamy (North Seberang Perai), Rachenamorthy Peresamy (Central Seberang Perai) and Gunalan Rengasamy (South Seberang Perai).

Gunalan complained that the time taken to process a citizenship application is three years.

“By that time, the applicant gets fed up or may not be alive anymore,” he said.

Malaysiakini is contacting the NRD office in Penang about the matter. -Mkini