KUCHING, July 31: The Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government is looking at addressing the issue of statelessness especially under Article 15A on a ‘policy-level’ so that it can be dealt with more holistically and effectively in the interest of children and their parents.
Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii stated this when refuting the claims by Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) leaders saying the dissolution of the Special Committee on Citizenship (SCC) will cause applications from Sarawak to be neglected.
“The move by the Home Affairs Ministry is to ensure that every decision made took into account the welfare of the children applying for citizenship status and involved a shortened period, from three years to one,” he said in a press release today.
Home Affairs Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin recently stated that the ministry will review the standard operating procedure (SOP) with regard to applications for citizenship to ensure that every application is considered more carefully, fairly and in a speedy manner.
The new SOP will have clearer guidelines in handling and considering applications for citizenship, particularly under Article 15A.
“This is a more holistic approach while dealing with the core issue to ensure that the application process is fair and transparent,” he said.
“The intention of the federal government is to address the issue on a ‘policy-level’ thus addressing the whole process itself to make it more transparent and even quicker so that it is resolved more effectively rather than just a committee to ‘expedite’ things,” he added.
Stressing that setting up a special task force to handle the citizenship applications reflected the commitment from the federal government, Dr Yii explained that the task force will play a crucial role as all PH Sarawak elected representatives can directly access the National Registration Department (NRD) and Home Affairs Ministry when assisting applicants.
“As such, saying that the needs and interest of Sarawak would somewhat be abandoned and not cared for is incorrect. The PH federal government is even more serious and sincere to properly correct this issue,” he said.
“This was demonstrated when there was a total of 56 approved applications in Kuching region alone and I believe more will be announced soon in different divisions all over Sarawak,” he added. — DayakDaily
