Datuk Masir Kujat
SIBU: There are still about 1,670 birth certificate and identity card applications in Sarawak that the Home Ministry wants to solve urgently, according to its deputy minister Datuk Masir Kujat.
He disclosed that a coordinated meeting was held recently between his ministry and Minister of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah to find ways to tackle the long-standing issue.
Masir, however, admitted that the nomadic Penans pose a challenge as the community moves from one place to another.
“We want to do (the registration on) the Penans’ side but, being nomadic in nature, the community is constantly moving about. Hopefully, we would be able to resolve how to register those (Penans) who are scattered deep in the interior,” he said yesterday.
Recently, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also Home Minister, said the predicament of people born in Sarawak but are without identification documents is expected to be solved by next September.
Ahmad Zahid had set a time frame whereby those eligible to obtain their identity card and birth certificate would be dealt with by Dec 1.
On this, Masir said Ahmad Zahid had directed him to settle the issue even after Dec 1 for those who had yet to obtain their identity card and birth certificate.
Citing his parliamentary constituency, the Sri Aman MP said there were a lot of problems related to identification documents due to those born out of wedlock and the many inter-marriages with Indonesians.
“For example, the father is a Sarawakian, while the mother is an Indonesian. Based on the previous requirement – to qualify for a Malaysian citizenship – the child must be born to a Sarawakian mother.
“But now, if either parent is a Malaysian and through certification by community leaders such as Penghulu, and provided that the applicants submit the complete sets of documents as required by the National Registration Department (JPN), the child can be given Malaysian citizenship. I do not see any problem with their applications if they submit a complete set of documents as per JPN’s requirements,” he explained.
Adding on, Masir said there is no issue of children who are ‘stateless’ in Sarawak.
“In fact, I had replied to Bukit Assek assemblywoman Irene Chang on this matter. It is not appropriate to call anyone ‘stateless’ because a child’s citizenship is determined by his or her parents’ nationalities.
“For the record, the child has a birth certificate as in accordance with the Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance 1951 (Sarawak Cap.10) for Sarawak, where every birth must be registered. They have the birth certificate, only that the status of citizenship has yet to be ascertained. So, we want to resolve this.”