Stateless: Parents seek Batu Kitang rep’s help obtain citizenship for their children
Lo at right in a photocall with Jordan, Terry and Terry’s parents.
Angelina, holding her non-citizen birth certificate with her parents.
According to Terry Tay, 39, his son was asked to go home from the school on July 14 because he is not a Malaysian citizen.
Adding to the problem, Terry said the RM100 that Jordan had been receiving annually for the past three years from the Education Ministry must also be refunded to the ministry.
On Tuesday, Terry, together with his son and parents, went to see Batu Kitang assemblyman Lo Khere Chiang at Padawan Municipal Council (MPP) to tell him their predicament.
“I have tried four times over a period of eight years to get a citizenship from National Registration Department (JPN) for my son, but to no avail,” said Terry, a Sarawakian who married his wife Bobby Phengsavat from Laos in 2008, but the couple has now divorced.
He hoped that the authority will look into the matter seriously to enable his son to continue his study.
Lo concurred with Terry, saying that the child should not be deprived of education to determine his future.
Another couple, Sarawakian Bong Hong Kiong and his Indonesian wife Koleta Asis Dala, who faced similar predicament, also went to see Lo on the same day.
The problem faced by the couple is that their eldest daughter Angelina Bong is a non-citizen, while their youngest son Alvin Bong is a Malaysian citizen.
Like Terry Tay, Bong has also been applying four times for his daughter’s citizenship for the past seven years.
Another Indonesian and her Sarawakian husband who have been married for eight years also went to see Lo to tell him that she has not been granted citizenship despite several attempts.
Lo said he will pursue the matter with JPN. He said many other couples had also approached him on the same predicament.
July 21, 2016, Thursday
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