Locals welcome PM’s announcement on citizenship issue
MIRI: The announcement on Tuesday by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that permanent residents who are holders of the red identity card aged 60 and above will be given citizenship status and issued with the blue identity card, is well received by many people here.
Three local leaders of different professions and from three different ethnic groups – Kayan, Kenyah Badeng (Orang Ulu) and Malay – said they welcomed the announcement and hoped it would be carried out immediately.
They are Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau representing the Orang Ulus in upper Baram, where many are facing problems of having no personal documents like identify cards and birth certificates; Abun Sui Anyit a Kenyah Badeng who is PKR Hulu Rajang chairman, and Temenggong Abdul Rahman Fadzail representing the Malays here.
Dennis said “I am happy the new government is willing to continue with the effort of the previous government in looking for ways to solve non- citizenship issue in our country.
“In fact, it is incumbent upon whomsoever party that rules the country to place this as one of their top priorities to enable genuine local Malaysians to eventually have their citizenship.”
Nonetheless, he hoped the decision of Pakatan Harapan ( PH) government was done after due consideration and taking all aspects into accounts and not a decision hastily done for the sake of delivering their election promises.
“Based on my years of experience working closely with the mobile unit of National Registration Department here in conducting numerous programme in upper Baram, we did come across a few locals issued with red and green identity cards.
“From feedback and my experiences in handling citizenship application by people in my constituency, one of the biggest and frustrating issues is the long waiting period, which sometimes could be up to three years to get a reply,” he said.
He said doing a follow-up with the relevant authorities via telephone calls was a very frustrating experience even for him as an elected representative.
“Your calls would be transferred from one person to another, and most of the time you would not get someone to tell you the status of the application despite putting up the application for months or even years.
“And when one applicant eventually received a written reply from Home Ministry, they would not state the reason why the application was rejected, leaving you wondering what to do next. Therefore, I hope the new government would come up with a better solution to this issue,” said Dennis.
Abun, a social activitist and lawyer by profession, also welcomed the decision to resolve the long standing citizenship issue.
“This is a good work by the PH government to give citizenship to those 60 years of age. But what is the criteria? Hope this is not for the Indians only but for all races in Malaysia.
“In Sarawak, there are quite a number of them without identity cards. In upper Rajang alone, we know a lot of people with red and green identity cards,” he said.
Abun said he knew of one guy ( Ingat Bato) from Long Dungan with a green card who had his application for the blue card rejected by the Home Ministry under the previous BN government.
“That is the highest executive body (ministry) for one to apply for a MyKad. I hope the PH government will settle this issue once and for all,” adding that for Ingat Bato, all his siblings had their respective MyKad. I hope the government will expedite his MyKad application process,
Temenggong Abdul Rahman too is very appreciative of the PH government’s announcement, adding that ‘problem of citizenship especially in Sarawak including in Miri needed strong political will’.
“We received many requests over the years from the younger generation even in Miri City alone, to endorse their parents or siblings as Malaysians. But we can’t and we are not authorised to do that, as many of those without personal documents were born earlier than us,” he said.
He said resolving citizenship issues for permanent residents 60 years and above would be a great move. One of benefits for those issued with blue IC would be the ability to exercise their democratic rights to vote during elections.