‘Let them attend school while waiting to verify status’
KUCHING: Malaysian students whose parents are in the midst of applying for their citizenship should be allowed to attend school.
Minister of Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said: “We appeal to school principals to allow these children to attend school until their issue of citizenship is resolved.”
Fatimah, who is ministerincharge of education in the state, reminded the public that citizenship matters lay in the hands of the Home Ministry and not the state government.
However, she appealed to the Home Ministry’s agency particularly the National Registration Department ( NRD) to be quick with decisions on applications of citizenship so as not to place the children and their parents in a dilemma.
She even said a special coordination task force had been set up to help the agency in resolving special cases.
Although she did not mention it at the press conference on Tuesday, Fatimah was obviously referring to the case of 10-yearold Nur Fatihah Quraini who had been asked to leave school because she did not have a birth certificate. She should be in Primary 4 but she has been out of school for eight months.
When contacted on Tuesday Fatimah said: “The girl’s parent may need to comply with a minimum requirement and that is to at least show proof to her school that she is in the process of applying for Nur Fatihah’s citizenship. A receipt from the NRD will do. Whoever is helping the family should have advised Nur Fatihah’s mother on this — that a receipt will do fine as proof. We also do not want to put the school authority in a dilemma of having to decide on whether to allow her in school or not. The school also fears having to be subjected to queries over the matter by the court.”
She said Nur Fatihah’s case might not be so difficult for the relevant agency, be it NRD Sarawak or NRD Selangor, to solve because the mother was a citizen and so were her six other siblings who were born in Sarawak. The girl is born out of wedlock but the mother could pursue her case by getting a statutory declaration signed before a district officer and to be witnessed by two persons.
“Even if she ( Nur Fatihah) is born out of wedlock, the child is assured of her mother’s citizenship,” she said.
When her plight was highlighted in The Borneo Post, Nur Fatihah was allowed to enter the school complete with full school uniform on Monday but only to be asked to leave the school again yesterday.
Nur Fatihah’s plight was first highlighted on a Facebook account and was picked up by social activist Manjeet Sidhu.
She missed school so much after eight months away, that she resorted to writing a touching letter to her teachers. The letter, handwritten by herself, described how much she missed school and particularly the teachers who had taught her. She not only signed off but also drew a picture of two of her lady teachers with the caption ‘I love my beautiful teachers’.
In the letter, the girl also wrote about her wish to see her little sister attending the Kemas kindergarten located next to the primary school and missing the food at the school canteen. However, she said the thing she missed the most was schooling.
She was born to Sophia Muhammad, a Sarawakian from Kampung Moyan Ulu in Asajaya, at home in Klang, Selangor. At that time Sophia was just a housewife and depended on a contractor husband who later left her and the girl.
In fact, the couple was not married when the girl was born. The reason for the alleged delay in applying for the birth certificate is ‘hardcore poverty’.
Subsequently, Sophia brought the girl and her other siblings home to Sarawak. Three of her siblings have birth certificates and are now schooling. Sophia now earns a living by fishing.
On Tuesday, Manjeet followed up on her application at the state NRD. She even brought along community leader KK Kalim Saili of Asajaya just in case the state NRD needed his testimony on Sophia’s origin. The state NRD is liaising with Selangor NRD over the matter.
When asked on the outcome of Nur Fatihah’s citizenship application Manjeet said: “The interview (involving Sophia) is still on-going”.
“But it is not good to deny Nur Fatihah and others facing similar issues the right to basic education,” she added.