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| The family of Jordan with State Assemblyman for Batu Kitang, Lo Khere Chiang at Padawan Municipal Council, |
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Angelina with her parents.
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KUCHING:
A Primary Three pupil, Jordan Tay was forced to pack and asked to go
home right in the middle of his lesson last Thursday feeling like a discarded
child.
This was due to the fact that his mother is
from Laos. Jordan’s certificate is without any serial number as his parents
registered their marriage only after he was born.
To add salt to injury, Jordan was asked to
pay back RM300 to the Education Department for three years the RM100 annual
education grant from the Education department meant for poor students.
In an emotionally charged press conference
on Tuesday at the Padawan Municipal Council, State Assemblyman for Batu Kitang,
Lo Khere Chiang who was normally calm and collected, fumed at the treatment of
Jordan having to leave his classroom in front of his classmates like a
criminal.
Lo called the action of the Education
Department a cruel and ruthless act and termed the National Registration
heartless to deny Jordan a citizenship when he was born and raised in Sarawak
as his father and grandparents are from here.
Jordan aged nine, a lanky kid was
bewildered by his tearful grandfather who narrated the heart breaking task the
family had taken to apply for Jordan’s citizenship without success for the last
nine years. Jordan’s father, Terry said they were only allowed to apply once a
year and they had done that four times already. The young boy’s wheelchair
bound grandmother who came to show her support to her grandson could only look
on in desperation.
“How can this type of things happen in this
day? How come an innocent child who was born and grow up in Sarawak does not
have a right to an education? And we even have a minister who was prepared to
build schools for Indonesian labourers’ children whose parents work here in
Sarawak but we deny our own children from an education,” Lo lamented.
He pointed out that there were many
Jordans out there and since he had joined the political line, he had been asked
for assistance to these stateless children who were born and raised in Sarawak.
He said he himself had gone to the National
Registration to seek for answers after advising parents to prepare the
necessary documents but again were rejected.
At the counter, Lo said, the officer told
him that they had rejected the application of a child, Lo was assisting. When
he asked what was the reason for rejecting, he was told, there was no reason.
When pressed further for answers,the officer told him that the family should
seek answers from Putra Jaya.
“It is so absurd to be told that the reason
for the rejection is ‘No Reason’, I do not understand the logic of this,” he
said.
In the second case, Lo said it was more out
of the world. The case of Angelina Bong aged 12 was similar to Jordan’s.
However, her younger brother aged 10 was granted a citizenship. Their mother,
an Indonesian only registered their marriage after Angelina was born. Two
siblings, he said, one was denied a citizenship due to the lack of a marriage
certificate.
Angelina, he pointed out, is growing up and
her predicament would be worst then. She would have difficulty getting a job or
a sense of belonging and she would even be having a difficult time to travel or
get married.
In Sabah, Lo said, there was once when tens
of thousands of foreigners were issued blue ICs and here in Sarawak, our own
people were denied of the basic rights.
In the case of Ermawati Kani who was
married for 12 years to a Sarawakian, Lo said all she wished for was a blue
identity card. He said the application for the card had left a toll on her and
she even dare not have any children as she worried for her future.
Putra Jaya is not a distance from Serian to
Kuching, he added. “These people are poor and earning an honest living to give
their children an education. How can they afford to fly to and fro to be
interviewed by officers from Putra Jaya. That is why it is time for us to take
back our own rights. Putra Jaya does not understand the hardship of these
people,” said Lo.
He hoped that by highlighting the plights
of these innocent children caught in the web of injustice, the authorities will
see to it that the children would be given what rightfully are theirs.
By : NewsDesk, Sarawak Tribune
Date Posted : Thursday 21-Jul-2016
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