KOTA KINABALU: After waiting for about 20 years, Loon Ah Moi, 69, finally managed to obtain Malaysian citizenship with the assistance of the United Posokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko).
She said she applied for the Malaysian citizenship since 20 years ago but had been asked to wait.
“I was tired with all the procedures under the Immigration Department and the National Registration Department (NRD).
“With the establishment of the Security and Citizenship Bureau under Upko, people like us who had tried for years to obtain Malaysian citizenship are now declared as Malaysian.
“I would like to express my gratitude to Upko for the assistance and continuous support to enable us to obtain citizenship and the MyKad,” she said when met at a gathering of Upko’s Security and Citizenship Bureau.
The event was officiated by the chief of Security and Citizenship Bureau Datuk Donald Peter Mojuntin at Shangri-La Hotel at Bandaran Berjaya here yesterday.
According to Ah Moi, although she is from China, the Bureau still assisted her. She appreciated Upko’s efforts in assisting them to obtain Malaysian citizenship.
Meanwhile Simon Paraini, 23, said his case was quite interesting.
“I applied for MyKad but found that someone had used my birth certificate to apply for the MyKad.
“When MyKad was ready, the photo in the MyKad was not mine.
“I do not know which party to blame for the mistake but when the NRD carried out an investigation, we found that the person is my step brother,” he said.
According to Simon, the case had been settled and he needed to amend his birth certificate.
“I made a new application to obtain a new MyKad and it was easier with the assistance of the Security and Citizenship Bureau. Now I have to wait for a new birth certificate.
“There were a lot of procedures I needed to go through before I could get my MyKad,” he said.
Simon explained that he used to stay with his mother but when his mother got married to a foreigner, his father took him away to stay with him.
“When my father took me away from my mother, she told my father that she had lost my birth certificate. At that time we did not know that my birth certificate was actually with her,” he said.