OCTOBER 26 — Dear Tun,

One of the promises in the election manifesto was to solve the issue of stateless people. 

Their plight has been highlighted far and wide in the local media, and promises have also been made to give citizenship to people who were born in Malaysia.

No thanks to your officers at National Registration Centre (JPN), things are not moving as we have expected. While fake identify cards have been identified throughout the country, in particular Sabah, genuine cases of children born to at least one Malaysian parent have been denied of citizenship.

I wish to remind you that once upon a time, you wanted the country’s population to reach 70 million. We are only half way to achieve this target, yet we are not giving enough attention to solve the stateless people’s issue. 

A couple of months ago, when Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng opened up a service counter to help stateless people, he was shocked to see a long queue waiting to see him.

People like Lateefah Koya, N. Surendran and Eric Paulssen have been working tireless to help the stateless chidlren. Your Cabinet ministers have also met up with you to discuss about the stateless people in the country.

This is the extent of the problem. It is not only affecting one particular race, but thousands of people who have not known any other country other than Malaysia. After all, how could they travel without ever having the chance to hold a Malaysian passport?

If the officers at JPN are the ones who are dragging their feet, perhaps, it is time for you to revamp both JPN and the Ministry of Home Affairs. We can no longer tolerate civil servants who are acting like little Napoleons. 

I have at hand the case of a 11-year-old girl who has been diagnosed of Systemic Lupus Ertythematosus (SLE). Because of her statelessness, the initial treatment at a public hospital has cost the family some RM2,000.

The matter has been brought to the attention of Minister of Health Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad who, together with his special officer, have gone the extra mile. Dr Dzulkefly has even offered to help the family financially, but this does not seem right especially when the child is stateless not by choice.

At the same time, doctors at the hospital have been very helpful but they can only do so much.

Over the long term, treatment is going to very costly for the family because the child, despite being born and raised in Malaysia, is treated like a foreigner. This is downright injustice happening behind my eyes. 

Iwish to also highlight the case of Rosiah Abdullah, who attracted our attention. Despite being a STPM top scorer, the brilliant student from SMK Kg Kapar could not enter public universities.

While the Deputy Minister of Education Teo Nie Ching has recently announced that stateless children should now be able to enrol in institutions of higher learning, Rosiah’s status has not changed after May 9.

I do not believe this is a case where the promises in the manifesto cannot be fulfilled but, as acting home minister, you have to issue your directive to set up a task force to handle all the cases.

Let me quote WH Auden: “We are here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don’t know.” Let us use whatever power vested on us to get things sorted for that will impact people’s lives.

* Stephen Ng is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008 and hopes to contribute to nation building.

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.