Immediate reforms needed to solve issue of stateless natives – Sapa
KUCHING: Sarawak Association for People’s Aspirations (Sapa) is urging the federal government to prioritise the issue of stateless natives in Sarawak as a key part of their reform agenda for the next stage of their term in office.
Newly appointed Sapa publicity and information chief, Peter John Jaban, said this issue has been neglected for many years under their predecessors and the sincerity of Pakatan Harapan (PH) towards raising quality of life for thousands of rural Sarawakian voters in the runup to the next state election will depend on their response to key problems like statelessness.
He said the group is calling for an end to the current case-bycase basis for decision making.
Any real impact, he added, will only be made through widespread policy and systemic changes to the procedures of National Registration Department (JPN), especially in rural Sarawak.
This might even require constitutional change to bring Malaysia in line with international conventions and, therefore, genuine cooperation between parties will be needed to effect any real change in favour of the Malaysian public, he said.
“People have been waiting for change for many decades now and are becoming extremely disillusioned with the lack of action on any number of issues since the last election.
“We are nearly one year into our new government and precious little action appears to have been taken in any direction. The issue of statelessness, especially in Sabah and Sarawak, has been at the forefront of the media and civil society for a long time and is long overdue.
“Failure to act now only serves to compound the ineptitude of the previous administration in recognising the rights of the legitimate Sarawakians who have been denied identity cards by a system that does not understand the specific cultural, economic and environmental conditions in the state. If the new PH government wants to distinguish itself, then this is a good place to start,” said Peter.
He also said it is the system itself which is flawed as it fails to understand the Adat, which is law in Sarawak, or our local culture, and old cases of statelessness fail to be addressed and new cases are arising daily.
“The backlog grows bigger, notwithstanding the occasional success story. Even more worrying, it is common for applicants to be refused identity cards and then for no further action to be taken. If JPN has designated these people as non-citizens, how can they possibly justify allowing them to remain in the country?” he asked and believes that JPN is fully aware that these people are genuine natives and should be given their identification cards.
As a new government, PH must work out its values and act on them, he pointed out.
“They owe their new positions to the voting public of Malaysia and they must respond to their needs. This is not just a problem confined to Sarawak. Malaysians are part of an international network – they are studying overseas and they are marrying internationally.
“Why should Malaysian citizens be forced into poverty because their husband or wife is refused the right to work here and assist in supporting their families? It is time for proper action on the subject of citizenship and nationality, and PH must stand by their promises of change and start implementing their agenda,” said Peter.