Stateless no more
12-year-old’s dream of travel now possible after getting birth certificate
Dinesh Kumar, 12, and his mother K. Kaliammah beaming with pride after receiving his birth certificate from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. He was among 177 Malaysian Indians who had their citizenship applications approved.
KUALA LUMPUR: Some Malaysians may take their birth certificates for granted, but the document means the world to 12-year-old Dinesh Kumar.
Dinesh lives in Melaka, loves to travel and hopes to be an engineer when he grows up.
But until recently, his dreams seemed beyond reach because he did not have a birth certificate.
“Thinking about it always made me sad, but now I’m so happy to finally have one.
“I can now sit for all my examinations and further my studies without any problems.
“I can also travel to Sarawak, Sabah and other places,” said the beaming Dinesh.
He was among 177 Malaysian Indians who received their citizenship application approvals and related documents from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak yesterday.
Dinesh’s mother K. Kaliammah, 45, said she took up an offer by the Welfare Department to adopt Dinesh when he was eight.
“Dinesh did not have a birth certificate and while the Welfare Department helped me with the application, it took a long time.
“I’m thankful that he finally has his papers,” said Kaliammah, who takes care of Dinesh and two other adopted children besides three of her own.
Dinesh is enrolled in SJKT Bukit Kajang in Jasin, Melaka, but because his citizenship status was uncertain, he was considered a non-citizen.
In his speech at the ceremony, Najib said 1,054 citizenship applications by Malaysian Indians were approved this year.
“This (effort) is in line with the Government’s aim to make our policies, which the Barisan Naisonal upholds, to be inclusive of and fair to all communities,” he said.
Others present were Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Cabinet Committee of Indian Community executive committee chairman Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam.
To resolve documentation issues faced by the community, the Government set up the MyDaftar initiative in 2010 to identify and help them obtain proper documentations.
From 2010 until last year, 12,276 applications were received.
Najib hit out at the Opposition for claiming that 300,000 Malaysian Indians were stateless.
He said a Mega MyDaftar campaign was held to find stateless Indians, but only about 2,500 were identified.
“This shows that the Opposition’s claim that 40,000 Bangladesh people were being brought in to vote for Barisan Nasional or that the country is going bankrupt is auta (fiction),” said Najib.