PENAMPANG: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) was reminded not to trivialise positive achievements by its political opposites and should instead work on assisting Sabahans with problems.
Moyog assemblyman Datuk Donald Mojuntin said it was such a pity how PKR trivialised positive things that were achieved and was speedy at character-assassinating personalities just for the mere reason that they were their political opposites.
“I do not know nor do I presume to know of any Sabahan with red MyPR or red IC due to the fact that they were born in Brunei before the formation of Malaysia, have approached Honorsius Bosuin for help.
“As far as I am concerned, those who approached UPKO’s Citizenship and Security Bureau have expressed their frustrations and in some cases, anger towards what they perceive as impersonal treatment by some National Registration Department (NRD) staff and letters after letters of rejection from the NRD director-general’s office,” he said.
Mojuntin said this in response to PKR Penampang information chief Honorsius Datuk Alfred Bosuin’s statement that he should not be too quick to blame civil servants for the delay in the process of citizenship approval for Sabahans born in Brunei Darussalam.
Bosuin claimed that part of the blame should fall on UPKO president Tan Sri Bernard Dompok who is a federal cabinet minister, and despite being in constant contact with Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussin, not raising the issue with the latter.
Mojuntin who is UPKO’s Citizenship and Security Bureau chairman, pointed out that these people are Sabahans but they are treated as if they were foreigners.
They have applied for Malaysian citizenship on their own but 30 to 40 years down the line, they still have not obtained the citizenship despite the fact that the rest of their family members are Malaysians.
“It is these peoples’ emotions that I was expressing and of course, I do share that emotion. Tan Sri Bernard also shares that same emotion. That is why we managed to help 11 Sabahans to be granted their rightful Malaysian citizenship. It is largely due to his (Dompok’s) efforts at the federal level that these applications were successful.
“Our appeals for these applicants are always sent to the Home Minister through Tan Sri Bernard in his capacity as a member of the federal cabinet. It is also due to UPKO Citizenship Bureau’s good relationship with NRD Sabah,” he stressed.
According to Mojuntin, this is especially so when Sabahans were appointed director of NRD Sabah, including the present one.
“In fact, I am already in communications with the state NRD director Ismail Ahmad regarding 15 more unsuccessful applicants. The bureau will certainly welcome requests for assistance. We will go through all available avenues to assist these applicants after we verify whether an application is genuine or not.
“We are also proposing for a special/adhoc NRD unit to handle this specific problem because the number of Sabahans born in Brunei and perhaps other countries like Singapore are finite. It is a closed group of people and their numbers can be ascertained,” he pointed out.
The formation of this special unit would be in line with the government’s policy of enhancing the delivery system of the civil service through its Government Transformation Program, he said.
“Perhaps instead of politicising every single issue, this is one important matter which PKR could also assist in, that is, to help those Sabahans to obtain their citizenship. They should form the relevant committee or bureau.
“Start now. No need to wait because the ‘change’ that you are hoping for may never happen,” Mojuntin stressed.