William Mangor
KUCHING: Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDS Baru) agrees with Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak Chairman, Chong Chieng Jien’s stand on the dissolution of the Special Committee on Citizenship (SCC).
PBDS Information Chief William Mangor said in a statement yesterday, the SCC under the purview of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) had been inefficient in handling the application for citizenship by stateless persons born in Sarawak.
“GPS could not improve the stateless situation even with the establishment of special committee.
“The results of the so called special committee did not live up to the expectations of the families who are facing the problem,” said Mangor.
He noted that for rural applicants the cost of having to travel to the city for DNA test and the test itself is a big burden.
“How could a rural family afford such expense to prove they are siblings of those who are already citizens with MyKad?” he asked.
Mangor added that the majority of stateless persons are Dayaks.
“Chong was right when he said that these applicants are compelled to live their lives as stateless persons all these years.”
Mangor agreed with Chong’s statement that Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development, Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah had failed as the chairman of the committee.
However, Mangor said the onus is now on Chong to prove that PH could do better by ensuring citizenship applicants need not undergo the same difficulties and delay they had to endure under
SCC.
“We look forward to PH walking the talk, and performing better than GPS on this stateless issue,” he said.