Create stable policy to resolve statelessness
Recently, I came across a heartfelt comment piece in Free Malaysia Today, written by Cikgu Rukku on statelessness in Malaysia.
She shared her personal experience of her late sister who had been a permanent resident of this country for 60 years without being conferred citizenship till her passing, despite her applying from the age of 12 in 1960.
Cikgu Rukku listed each criterion that her sister had fulfilled, including being the daughter of a man who served proudly for Kereta Api Tanah Melayu for more than 30 years, being the daughter of a woman who gave away her Singaporean Citizenship for Malaysian Citizenship in 1975 and most importantly, having a birth certificate registered at the Sungai Besi police station.
Despite all these, she was only conferred Permanent Residence and sadly passed away, being categorised as a foreigner under the Covid-19 death numbers on Tuesday, June 15.
This stateless issue does not reflect in just Cikgu Rukku’s or her late sister, but many other unfortunate individuals, regardless of race and religion, who were born, bred and live their entire lives in this country.
Despite numerous claims on the exact numbers, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that there are at least 10,000 people in West Malaysia alone who are denied nationality, with unknown numbers in East Malaysia as cited in Suhakam’s 2018 Annual Report.
The UNHCR also estimates that the number of stateless people in Malaysia was reduced drastically from 40,000 in 2009 to 12,700 as of end-2017. Why this drastic reduction took place and how the current government could replicate the module implemented within the 2009-2017 timeframe are important for us to reflect on today.
The government must first look into the MyDaftar Initiative led by MIC and rolled out under the monitoring of the Special Implementation Task Force of Cabinet Council for Indian Affairs under the Prime Minister’s Department in 2010.
Through this task force, a total of 5,593 out of 9,529, or 60 percent of the applications for citizenship were approved within a year through the MyDaftar channel compared to the existing channel through the National Registration Department (NRD) which, as cited by the UNHCR, has an estimated process time of up to three years.
How did we manage this? It’s because the MyDaftar Initiative had a legitimate source of power, being both placed and backed by the prime minister himself. Even the NRD could not veto out an application without proper reasons, which mostly related to technical aspects
According to official records, the MyDaftar campaign successfully identified 12,000 stateless Indians, out of which, 7,000 managed to obtain their citizenship. This initiative was subsequently continued through the Mega MyDaftar Initiative in 2017.
As a result, the number of stateless people in Malaysia was reduced massively through these initiatives and several others supported by the government, non-governmental organisations and civil societies.
In mid-2018, the then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced the approval of 3,407 citizenship applications. The problem is that the continuation of such special initiatives depends largely on the political will of the ruling government of the day.
We managed to obtain citizenships for almost 10,000 people between 2009 and 2017 through MyDafter and Mega MyDaftar, but from 2018 till date, such initiatives were no longer to be seen.
Mahathir had also announced in 2018 that the government would confer citizenships to individuals above 60 years old holding Permanent Residence in an attempt to reduce stateless people in Malaysia. What happened to the implementation of the decision also remains unanswered.
Following the change of government in early 2020, Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin announced a one-year window as a levy for stateless individuals to submit proper documentation and evidence to the Home Ministry. It’s already mid-2021, and yet we still don’t know what has happened to this policy as well.
In my opinion, the biggest blunder in resolving this issue is the inconsistencies in implementing policies and the change of approach every time we appoint a new home minister.
Most stateless people in Malaysia are unable to obtain citizenship because they don’t have proper documentation. This is a well-known fact. What would we eventually achieve by asking them to submit things which we already know that they don’t have?
Inconsistencies from the government will result in more and more individuals being denied their rightful citizenships, just like what Cikgu Rukku and her family went through.
It is high time for the Perikatan Nasional government to understand and acknowledge the fact that we need a concrete and stable policy and its implementation in order to resolve this stateless issue in Malaysia. - Mkini
SIVARRAAJH CHANDRAN is a MIC vice-president.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
✍ Credit given to the original owner of this post : ☕ Malaysians Must Know the TRUTH
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