Lo fields questions from the press in the presence of the stateless children.
KUCHING: The National Registration Department (NRD) has been urged to clearly state its policy in handling the ‘stateless’ children issue.
Batu Kitang assemblyman Lo Khere Chiang said more effort and work had to be done to solve the problem.
Speaking at a press conference here after receiving a visit from several parents seeking his help to obtain citizenship for their children yesterday, he said he was perplexed why a teenager was not given his citizenship by NRD while his three other siblings had theirs.
Jong Chee Kiat, 17, was accompanied by all his siblings (sister, 18, and two younger brothers, 9 and 11), to meet Lo at his office yesterday.
His father is a local and his mother is Singaporean. He was born at a hospital here. His birth certificate, however, bears no serial number and no state.
What confused him further is that his two younger brothers, who were born in their mother’s home country, have managed to obtain Malaysian citizenship through Lo’s assistance.
Lo said this was a ridiculous case and there was no reason why the state NRD could not give the teenager his Malaysian citizenship. Chan May Ly, 8, also has similar predicament. Her father accompanied her to see Lo yesterday.
He lamented the inefficient and nonsensical procedure he had gone through to get his daughter’s citizenship but to no avail.
“I have been up and down their office, written many letters and have been told to call the NRD office in Putrajaya which I did more than 100 times. The answer I received for the past eight years is ‘still in process’ or ‘still with the person above’,” he said, adding that his main concern was his daughter’s education and future.
In another case, two siblings, Tsea Shu Shien, 27 and Tsea Xiao Yue, 25, have less confusing tales.
Shu Shien has a birth certificate but not a MyKad while Xiao Yue has no birth cert and no MyKad.
They said ‘late registration’ and ‘not complete document’ were always reasons given by the authority.
As such, they were still stateless despite the many applications made to NRD.
Consequently, they cannot open a bank account and are also unable to contribute to Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Social Security Organisation (Socso).
Another boy, 8, is facing similar problem which led his father to bring him to meet Lo for his assistance.
Lee Lee Yuan’s father said he (Lee Yuan) was not granted citizenship despite several attempts to apply for one and it would break his (father) heart to see his children being deprived of their education and future.
In all the cases, the fathers are locals who are married to Indonesian women except for Jong’s mother.
Lo, who is also Padawan Municipal Council chairman, said the cases had to be highlighted so that NRD headquarters would take immediate action in handling the issue.
“There could be many (more) cases unreported out there and the people are knocking on my door seeking help from me as an elected people’s representative. It is my responsibility to pursue the matter with NRD. The parents have gone through the proper procedures but the state NRD always said the matter was still ‘being referred to Putrajaya’.
“If they are being inefficient, this is doing injustice to the innocent children. Call me busybody but my main concern is their future.
“I want the authority to set the proper policy to solve the issue, not only for these few mentioned cases but all cases in the state,” he said.
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