Special committee receives 195 citizenship applications

KUCHING: A Special Citizenship Committee under Section 15 (A) of the Federal Constitution, which was set up in Jan 2016, has received 195 applications from the state for those below 21 years to obtain Malaysian citizenship.

Minister of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah said the committee is tasked to check and acknowledge applications received through National Registration Department (JPN) before submitting them to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

“So far, 195 applications have been submitted to the committee, which does not have the authority to grant citizenship. The authority that does is the Home Minister who is also Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi,” Fatimah told reporters at her office here yesterday.

She said the committee had been given three years until next year to operate.

Fatimah said granting of citizenship was important so that education and welfare assistance could be accorded to the recipients as opposed to those without citizenship who were denied access to education and other assistance from the government.

She added that such problems affect mostly those from poor families since they could not get any welfare aid and other assistance from anywhere.

She thus reminded parents to register their marriage or at least have their children’s birth registered to avoid future complications.

On the status of a MyKad application of a Penan woman, Julan Usong, 37, Fatimah said it could not be processed because of different information being provided.

However, the application is still being investigated.

Fatimah added that Miri JPN has assured that the application would be processed once the correct information is received.

She said this in response to an English newspaper report that Julan, who obtained her birth certificate in 2011, has spent RM10,000 trying to get her MyKad, but to no avail.