By Karen Bong
KUCHING, March 17: A total of 102 successful applicants for Malaysian citizenship in Sarawak have yet to claim their identification documents or MyKads since 2012.
Minister of Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah pointed out these successful applicants did not respond to the official letters which have been mailed out to inform them to collect their citizenship documents.
“It will be a waste of effort and a big loss to these successful applicants who have applied and waited but did not come and collect their documents.
“Hence, we will improve our database system, furnished with all the details including last address and contact numbers as well as status of applications so as to better coordinate tasks between the ministry and community leaders in every district throughout Sarawak to track them down.
“We also urged the National Registration Department (NRD) to provide us copies of the letters so as to facilitate the tracking process,” she said during at a meeting by the Sarawak Special Committee on Citizenship Status (SSCOC) under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution held in Miri today.
Fatimah also revealed that a total of 73 new citizenship applications were tabled before the committee, out of which 45 applications were under the illegitimate children category, 15 applications under the foster children category and 13 applications under the adopted children category.
As for the 145 applications which have been tabled and received recommendations from the committee at the last meeting, she said that they will be submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs for consideration.
Later, a ceremony was also held to hand over approval letters for Malaysian citizenship under Article 15A to six out of 14 people in Miri who were able to be present physically to receive the documents.
Also present at the meeting were Deputy Minister of Women and Childhood Development Datuk Rosey Yunus, permanent secretary to the ministry Datu Dr Rashidah Bolhassan, NRD Sarawak director Abang Noraffian Abang Ibrahim and NRD Citizenship Division director Siti Maslinda Mardi. — DayakDaily
