Ministry urged to reconsider decision to disband citizenship committee

The Sarawak Women for Women Society (SWWS) has called on the Home Ministry to reconsider its decision to disband the Sarawak Special Committee on Citizenship.

Its president, Margaret Bedus, said yesterday the committee has proven its effectiveness in handling citizenship application cases quicker and in terms of according respect to the native and state sensitivities.

She said there is also a need for all standard operating procedures (SOPs) to be transparent, for key resource people at both federal and state levels to be identifiable to those tracking their applications and for procedures and decisions to be communicated efficiently, especially to those living in the remote areas of Sarawak.

“This will require better access to government services, including more effective, systematic outreach to semi-urban and rural areas; sensitivity training to the front-liners handling registration matters; and better collaboration between services,” she said in a statement.

Margaret said Sarawak needed to be treated differently to states in the peninsula due to its complexities arising from a very dispersed and diverse population.

Home Ministry secretarygeneral Datuk Seri Alwi Ibrahim informed Sarawak Minister of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah in writing on July 22 of the decision to discontinue the committee and to have all cases in Sarawak referred to or resubmitted to the ministry for coordination purposes. - Bernama