The Ting family in a photo with Phoong (seated, left).
KOTA KINABALU (Dec 27): To parents Ting Leng Ming and Arsaida Abdul, their greatest Christmas present this year is none other than the approval of citizenship for their two children that will allow them to access education without hindrance.
Both children had faced challenges in registering for primary schools due to their stateless status and lack of documents.
It was learned that both Ting and his wife Arsaida are both Malaysians. However, due to some issues with Arsaida’s identity and the couple’s marriage certificate, both their children were unable to obtain citizenship.
The couple eventually sought help from Luyang assemblyman Phoong Jin Zhe, who helped the parents to apply for citizenship for both children from the National Registration Department (NRD) as they have sufficient documentation.
On December 21, the parents received the good news that the applications for citizenship for both their children, Mohd Sya, eight, and Shirlley, six, were approved.
Mohd Sya has previously enrolled in SK(C) Anglo Chinese and his sister, Shirlley, will be following her brother’s footsteps to enter the primary school as well.
Nevertheless, Phoong said as long as both parents or the mother are Malaysians, the children should be entitled to citizenship even though their parents’ marriage certificate is not recognized.
Hence, he urged the NRD to improve on the application procedures to resolve similar issues faced by Malaysians.
Meanwhile, Phoong urged the State Government to set priorities in planning for the upgrading of the transportation system in the state capital, as opposed to going the other way round by implementing the skytrain project.
“We should first resolve the bus terminal issues, in view of the increasing traffic congestion in Kota Kinabalu. Each month, there is a three per cent increase of vehicles on the road.”
He took Deputy Chief Minister cum Sabah Public Works Minister Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin to task for proposing the skytrain project, which could end up becoming a white elephant.
He said the contractors would ultimately be the sole beneficiary of the project.
Phoong, who is also Sabah Democratic Action Party (DAP) secretary, cited a written answer by the Chief Minister during the recent State Legislative Assembly sitting, which stated that the maximum capacity for bus passengers at KK Sentral was 3,200 a day, but the current average capacity was only about 500 passengers a day.
According to the Greater Kota Kinabalu Public Transportation Master Plan launched 10 years ago, he said the Wawasan bus terminal and bus stop were supposed to be built and upgraded between 2011 and 2012, followed by the Southern terminal in Kepayan, Northern terminal in Inanam, rapid transit and traffic information management system between 2013 and 2016, and light rail transit or monorail train between 2017 and 2020.
To date, he said the government had only completed KK Sentral while other plans have yet to commence.
Phoong urged the State Government to set up a bipartisan special committee to explore other suitable transportation system.