Fatimah: Decision by Home Ministry’s sec-gen ‘upsetting’

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A hand-out photo shows Fatimah (front, left) with Muhyiddin on her left before the start of the Feb 22 meeting in Kuala Lumpur. Behind Fatimah are Harden and Rosey.

KUCHING: Minister of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah cannot hide her disappointment over the decision by Home Ministry’s secretary-general Datuk Seri Alwi Ibrahim to discontinue the Sarawak Special Committee on Citizenship under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution.

In the July 22 letter, Alwi also mentioned that all cases in Sarawak over the subject matter must be referred to or re-submitted to the Home Ministry for coordination purposes, said Fatimah, who is also Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) Women’s chief.

“I received a letter from the Home Ministry as regards the committee handling Section 15A. It broke my heart,” Fatimah told The Borneo Post yesterday.

“The committee not only helps to facilitate and expedite applications, but we even go a step further to rectify root cause of problems of children with citizenship issues, or those whose applications are not yet cleared.”

Fatimah said the problems could stem from various factors including marriages between local men and foreign women, which got compounded with them having children before they managed to get married properly.

She argued that the special committee would enable quicker action on applications because they were not put in the same basket as applications from the other states.

Fatimah added: “This is a subject very close to my heart. I know the predicament faced by the children concerned and the families; how it affects their education, other services that are enjoyed by Malaysian citizens such as healthcare services, welfare services – just to name a few very important ones. Not forgetting how it affects social, emotional and mental well-being of the children and families concerned.”

According to Fatimah, of all the states in Malaysia, only Sarawak has this kind of special committee.

The committee was set up in October 2016, with the greenlight from then-Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

On Feb 22 this year, Fatimah and her two assistant ministers, Datuk Francis Harden (Community Wellbeing) and Rosey Yunus (Women, Family and Childhood Development), paid a courtesy call on the current Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who assured them that the committee could continue.

“He (Muhyiddin) told us that the special committee could continue. I said ‘Thank You’. He also said if it’s good for the people of Sarawak, then continue. I said ‘true’,” Fatimah said on what transpired during the courtesy call.

“Prior to this, there was another letter from the Home Ministry mentioning that YB Chong (DAP Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen) had requested Home Minister that his colleagues from the DAP (Senator Alan Ling, Lanang MP Alice and Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong) be included as members of this special committee. I counter-proposed to have YB Irene (Bukit Assek assemblywoman Irene Chang) from the DAP because we have worked together on adoption issues, which is one of the contributing factors leading to stateless issue.

“I would like to think that this was not Tan Sri Muhyiddin’s decision. Then again, there are things that need not be politicised. Welfare of children is one of them. If the committee is discontinued, then all applications would be lumped together with the others and applicants (from Sarawak) are no more special. Time is the factor; otherwise we would go back to square one. And problems and issues will remain without resolutions soon,” she said.

Fatimah also believed that the good work of the committee would be manifested during Muhyiddin’s visit to Sarawak tomorrow (Sunday) when he would present 15 to 19 approved applications for citizenship.

“As time is of the essence, I feel that the committee has to go on. We do not mind YB Irene Chang to be in the committee just like we had counter-proposed previously,” said Fatimah.

She disclosed that since the setting up of the committee in 2016, they had received 723 applications and 120 of these applicants had received their citizenship.