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By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, June 20: Fifteen-year-old Tan Jia Ying no longer has to pay school fees costing three times more than what her classmates pay after obtaining a temporary identification document (DSITKS) from the Sarawak government today.
The SMK Pending student has been stateless all her life despite being born and bred in Sarawak.
She has a brother just two years younger but she did not have education and healthcare privileges like her brother.
“If I was sick, I had to go to private health facilities because public hospitals and clinics would charge my treatment at a high fee rate due to me being recognised as a non-Malaysian citizen.
“In schools, I have the letter that allows me to enrol in local schools but my education fees are more expensive compared to my classmates. I am not entitled to any government subsidy like them so my family had to pay triple (amount for non-citizen students),” she told DayakDaily when met after a ceremony to present DSITKS to stateless individuals in Sarawak at Community Social Support Centre (CSSC) Kuching here today.
According to her 52-year-old father Tan Chew Ho, he is happily married to his 37-year-old Indonesian wife, Isnas.
When Jia Ying was born in 2008, they had encountered a problem in registering her birth due to their marriage being unregistered.
“It was hard for us to register our marriage back then because Isnas is an Indonesian so the process to register our marriage took a very long time.
“Due to the marriage registration being slow, we weren’t able to register our daughter’s birth certificate,” he said.
Nevertheless, Chew Ho stressed that he has been applying for Malaysian citizenship for Jia Ying for 15 years.
The first two applications that he submitted were rejected without giving reasons given.
A third attempt was made in 2018 with the application’s current status unknown to the family as they continue to wait for Jia Ying’s citizenship application to be approved by the Malaysian government.
Chew Ho further hoped that with the temporary document, his daughter would be able to benefit from government assistance in terms of healthcare and education just like any other Malaysian citizen.
“For the official citizenship application, I hope she (Jia Ying) will get it,” he said. – DayakDaily
