Fatimah (second right) in a discussion with (from right) Assistant Minister for Welfare and Community Wellbeing Dr Abdul Rahman Ismail, Assistant Minister for Early Childhood Education and Family Development Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali and state NRD director Jasni Jubli.
KUCHING: The special taskforce handling the issue of stateless children in Sarawak has exceeded its target of conducting 50 operations a year.
As at Dec 31 last year, the taskforce ran 63 operations where it received a total of 4,098 late birth certificate registrations and approved 2,885 applications.
Of the total applications, 1,213 were rejected.
“This year, the taskforce has so far conducted 15 operations where 549 late registrations for birth certificates were received. Of the figure (549), 377 applications were approved, 165 rejected and another seven applications are still being processed by the technical committee,” Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah told reporters at her office here yesterday.
According to her, the taskforce is focusing on operations in the rural areas across the state to seek children or students who are without birth certificates, with the assistance of their respective members of the State Legislative Assembly (DUN).
Without birth certificates, school students are barred from sitting for public examinations – the Form 3 Assessment (PT3), Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM).
Fatimah also said the number of requirements in applying for a birth certificate through the special taskforce had been greatly reduced compared with the conventional methods in registering with the National Registration Department (NRD).
Under this taskforce, the applicants’ background must be verified by the community leaders such as the Penghulu or Tuai Rumah, who will need to sign a ‘Statutory Declaration’.
The second stage would be the interview of applicants by a member of the taskforce to further validate the declaration given by the community leaders.
“There are also cases where the applicants are holders of foreign personal documents, despite the verification the community leaders via the statutory declaration,” Fatimah pointed out.
On another note, the minister said the taskforce would strive to carry out 50 programmes this year. Next month, members of the taskforce will visit Kampung Jagus in Lambir, Bekenu community hall, the rural service centre (RSC) at Long Latei, SK Ulu Pelagus, Rumah Jangit in Tamin and Simunjan community hall.
Fatimah, who is Dalat assemblywoman, cited an operation carried out by the taskforce at SK Bukit Balai in Bintulu where they identified 14 students who were without birth certificates.
“Of the 14, 12 students were issued with both birth certificates and Malaysian citizenship, while another was only issued with a birth certificate without Malaysian citizenship,” she said, adding that the application for the other student is still in progress.
Under the Malaysian Constitution, every child must be issued with a birth certificate.
With regard to the exercise conducted by the special taskforce, Fatimah said the only difference is whether the child would be given the Malaysian citizenship or not.