Fatimah: Chong ‘ignorant’ to call for closure of State Special Committee on Citizenships

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Fatimah Abdullah

KUCHING: Minister of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah has described Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen as “ignorant” for failing to appreciate the work process of the State Special Committee on Citizenships.

“This just shows how ignorant Chong is on the work process involved. The special committee was set up because performance before this was unsatisfactory. It took too long for the application results. Some took up to five years.

“Through the special committee, because it is placed in a basket of its own, it took about one to two years,” she said through a press statement today.

“Another point is that we forwarded the applications. The special committee enables it to be fast tracked but the final person in the whole work process for approval is the Home Minister. It can pile up if he doesn’t tend to it,” she said.

The current Home Minister is Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Chong who is also deputy minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs yesterday (Monday) made a sweeping statement, saying that the special committee set up by Fatimah’s ministry needed to be discontinued due to its unsatisfactory performance.

Due to this, citizenship issues were still rampant in Sarawak, with many unable to obtain identity cards, the Stampin MP claimed.

He claimed that the National Registration Department already had officers tasked specifically to address citizenship issues and accused the special committee of duplicating work.

“Since only 127 cases out of 723 applications were approved within three years, there is no point letting the special committee continue to exist,” said Chong who is Kota Sentosa assemblyman.

The special committee was set up in 2016 with the intention to speed up process of applications and approval of citizenships of stateless individuals.