Elia Bit
MIRI: The Penan Empowerment Networking Association (Pena) has welcomed the decision by the Home Affairs Ministry to discontinue the Sarawak Special Committee on Citizenship and replace it with a federal special taskforce to solve citizenship issues.
Its chairlady Elia Bit when contacted Tuesday said with the setting-up of the new taskforce, applications for citizenship involving Sarawakians, especially those holding red and green identity cards, can be processed quicker.
“Previously, applications for ‘stateless’ persons have to go to the Sarawak Special Committee before being handed over to the Home Affairs Ministry, meaning it takes a longer time to process.
“I personally believe that with the new special taskforce set up by the Home Affairs Ministry, such cases will be given priority and the process will not take too long to be completed,” she said.
Elia, who has been actively pursuing issues relating to identity cards, especially cases involving the Penan and Orang Ulu communities in Baram, felt that issues involving red and green identity cards needed to be addressed at the federal level.
She also believed the Sarawak government as well as local non-governmental organisations must work together with new taskforce to address the issue which mostly affects those in rural areas.
“Citizenship is a national issue and we hope the new taskforce will come to Sarawak and go to the grassroots to better understand the issues faced by the people,” Elia said.
The discontinuation of the Sarawak Special Committee on Citizenship was communicated in a letter from Home Affairs Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Alwi Ibrahim on July 22 to Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah, who chaired the committee.
Home Affairs Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin during a visit to the state Monday explained the decision to end the state committee was because the ministry had decided to form a special taskforce to deal with citizenship issues, as
citizenship was a federal responsibility.
On another note, Elia said Pena will be visiting a Penan settlement in Ba Magoh and also Bario from Aug 5 to Aug 9 to collect data from those who are still ‘stateless’ or holding green and red identity cards.