By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Oct 11: Former Bukit Assek assemblywoman Irene Chang called on the Sarawak government to clarify if the ‘K’ status will automatically be given to successful citizenship applicants or if they are required to file a separate application to be recognised as Sarawakian.
Chang, in a statement today, said although recent approval by the Sarawak Cabinet on the proposal to allow previously stateless adopted children in Sarawak to receive the ‘K’ status is a significant step, the ministry involved needs to urgently release comprehensive, detailed guidelines and standard operating procedures (SOPs) providing a clear framework regarding the ‘K’ status for all parties involved.
“Moreover, I urge the Sarawak government to enlighten those applicants who have already previously applied for the ‘K’ indicator at the Immigration Department and are currently waiting for results on whether they should reapply.
“In the event that these existing applicants are to wait, what is the time frame before they would know if their application has been approved or otherwise?” she asked.
She said the current proposal makes no mention of the ‘K’ status for biological children who were born illegitimately out of wedlock to a Sarawakian biological father whose name is inserted into these children’s birth certificates as the biological father.
According to her, there are incidents involving a few families whose foreign biological mothers came to Sarawak and gave birth to children here and subsequently abandoned the children with the Sarawakian fathers and, after that, returned to their respective countries without registering their marriage to the Sarawakian fathers, thereby rendering these children illegitimate.
Similarly, she said, upon successfully being registered as Malaysian citizens under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution, these children were also not given the ‘K’ status on their identity cards.
She also pointed out that the current proposal, which the Sarawak Cabinet has approved, should also include these children whose biological father is a Sarawakian with the ‘K’ status on his identity card.
“I further urge the ministry to expedite this matter and to fine-tune all required procedures with all relevant government departments.
“This matter has been ongoing since the time I first wrote to the State Secretary in 2021. Since then, we have lost many local talents to West Malaysia and even to Singapore when they could not get proper employment due to the lack of the ‘K’ indicator on their new identity card,” she added.
On Oct 10, Minister of Women, Early Childhood, and Community Wellbeing Development Sarawak (KPWK) Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah announced that children in welfare institutions whose parental status is unknown will be eligible to receive the ‘K’ indicator on their MyKad if adopted by families from Sarawak.
The ‘K’ status is given to Sarawakians, meaning that the Sarawak government recognises them as Sarawakians. — DayakDaily
