By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, Aug 17: The recent political struggle at federal level which caused the resignation of Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and his Cabinet is prolonging statelessness issue in Sarawak.
To Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah, a stable federal government is crucial for Sarawak to manage the people’s welfare especially in addressing the long outstanding issue of statelessness among some deserving residents in the State.
“In order to assist our people who are categorised as stateless, we required the signature of Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Hamzah Zainudin to endorse the applications before the documentation can be approved and issued to our people.
“The Sarawak’s special committee overseeing this issue of citizenship under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution which includes the Home Affairs Deputy Minister was supposed to meet next Monday but now we do not know whether we could proceed with this matter.
“This shows how the political squabbles could affect the people especially our Sarawakian children who have applied for citizenship,” she told reporters during her visit to meet the fire victims of Kampung Segubang at the Min Lit Secondary School evacuation centre today.
Fatimah who is Dalat assembly woman hoped that a new federal government can be formed as soon as possible so that it can focus on managing the Covid-19 pandemic as well as steering the country to better future including addressing the statelessness issue in Sarawak.
On the issue of statelessness, she said the issue stemmed from various factors. Among them are indifference towards application of an identity document and citizenship when a child is born, inaccessibility due to the State’s geographical situation, and unregistered marriages.
She explained that cases of unregistered marriages usually involved foreign mothers. If the mother is a foreign woman, the child’s citizenship status usually follows that of the mother.
Fatimah said a child with no identification document will get into trouble when it comes to their rights to obtain formal education and processes to get assistance such as welfare and healthcare. — DayakDaily
