Stateless Indians: Don’t rely on MyDaftar figures alone, says MP

PETALING JAYA: Padang Serai MP N Surendran today took Prime Minister Najib Razak to task over his claim on the number of stateless Indians in Malaysia, calling it shocking and unacceptable.

He was referring to Najib’s remarks on Oct 31, in which the prime minister had rubbished an opposition claim that some 300,000 Malaysian Indians were without citizenship papers.

Calling it a “fairy tale”, Najib said the MyDaftar initiative had only received 2,500 citizenship applications.

However, Surendran said the total number of stateless Indians could not be based only on those who turned up at MyDaftar counters.

“Obviously, there would be thousands of others all over the country which MyDaftar could not have reached with its limited time and resources.

“The very fact that MyDaftar had to be set up is an admission by the government of the extent and seriousness of the problem.

“If the problem of statelessness was not serious, the National Registration Offices could have been left to deal with it,” he said in a statement.

He added that Najib’s claim of only 2,500 stateless Indians contradicted the daily experience of activists, NGOs and elected representatives who continued to encounter “unacceptably large numbers” of such cases.

“It is wrong and irresponsible of the prime minister to simply brush off the problem of Indian statelessness.

“Selected and random showpiece events giving citizenship to some Indians will never resolve this problem which devastates the lives of those afflicted,” he said.

Surendran said the only way to accurately account for the number of stateless Malaysian Indians was to carry out a comprehensive census exercise.

“Why has the Barisan Nasional government still not done this, instead of relying upon the anecdotal and grossly inaccurate figures reported by MyDaftar?”

He added that Najib’s claims of being concerned over stateless Indians contradicted the attitude his administration had taken in dealing with actual cases that came to the National Registration Department (NRD).

“Why is it that the government has strenuously objected in court to conceding citizenship in genuine cases involving children who were born in Malaysia of a Malaysian parent and have lived in the country all their lives?

“Cases of this nature are now pending before the courts due to the home ministry’s objections to confirmation of citizenship.”

He said stateless applicants also faced excessive bureaucratic hurdles and unreasonable demands for “non-existent documents”, which negatively impacted their applications.

“There are stateless Indians who have been applying for a blue IC for many years without success.

“Does this show Najib’s commitment to resolve statelessness among Malaysian Indians?” -FMT