Late birth registration condition shows govt ignorant of Sarawakian needs, says activist

Peter John Jaban says activists dealing with statelessness have long been raising issues of poor infrastructure preventing applicants from even going to state NRD offices. (File pic)

KUCHING: A Sarawak activist today chided Home Minister Muhiyiddin Yassin over the ministry’s decision to stop late birth registrations at state National Registration Department (NRD) offices.

Peter John Jaban of Solidariti Anak Sarawak said the latest changes to the procedures for IC applications by Putrajaya would exacerbate the issue of statelessness in Sarawak.

The move took no account of the needs of the citizens and was a retrogressive step rather than a move towards solving the problem, he said.

“It is very easy to make procedural changes from the perspective of an air-conditioned office in the capital but clearly, he (Muhyiddin) has not bothered to go down to the ground in Sarawak or even to take advice from the numerous NGOs or stakeholders helping the stateless individuals in the Borneo states.”

He said in a statement here, today: “Late registrations are a natural outcome of poor infrastructure and the failure to provide adequate education, something which the minister should take some responsibility for as the long-standing education minister in the former government.”

The home ministry has stopped late birth registrations at state NRD offices with immediate effect to “improve” the NRD delivery system.

Muhyiddin said late registrations could only be done at the NRD headquarters in Putrajaya, as a check and balance measure.

Jaban said activists dealing with statelessness had long been raising issues of poor infrastructure preventing applicants from even going to state NRD offices.

Now, Jaban said, villagers would have to travel even farther, to Putrajaya.

“This is a backwards step. Many Sarawakians still give birth in their villages because of the difficulty in travelling to urban centres for hospital care.”

Jaban said instead of granting more autonomy to the departments at state level, Muhyddin had decided to increasingly centralise, a move that took no account of the citizens but was rather to “plug gaps” in his own internal security to the detriment of many rural applicants in Sarawak.

“It would appear that the policy is being passed to suit the needs and ease of government departments instead of the needs of the most marginalised members of society.

“If application procedures are not tailored to suit the needs of the populace, then the issue of statelessness will simply continue into the next generation, something which should be an extreme source of shame to a modern nation like Malaysia,” he said.

Jaban said Sarawakians had been marginalised enough in the federal government’s planning and they had had enough of it.

“If the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government wishes to win in the next state election, then they should start considering our needs instead of ignoring them,” he said.

He said rural infrastructure, rural healthcare and rural education in Sarawak had been ignored for decades and that this must not continue. - FMT