The Wanita DAP publicity secretary says many people were still waiting for citizenship despite being born in this country.
Wanita DAP publicity secretary Kasthuri Patto wants Pakatan Harapan government to look into plight of scores of people denied citizenship.
PETALING JAYA: The home ministry must launch a probe into the success of the MyDaftar programme regarding decades-old citizenship applications that have not seen the light of day, Batu Kawan MP and Wanita DAP publicity secretary Kasthuri Patto said.
After its introduction in 2011, MyDaftar had proven that it was nothing but a disaster as only a small number of senior citizens and spouses, who had been on the waiting list for citizenship for decades, had finally received their blue MyKads, she said in a statement today.
Last year, 74-year-old Lai Len @ Lye Choi Lin received her MyKad after waiting 60 years. She had to pay exorbitant fees as a non-citizen when seeking treatment at government hospitals and was denied all rights due to a Malaysian citizen, including the right to vote.
“Her story is not an isolated one as every single MP has seen the dilemma faced by senior citizens who very sadly show their ‘Pemastautin Tetap’ red identity cards despite having being born in estates and villages in Malaya, Sabah or Sarawak.
“They were left disappointed despite making many trips to the National Registration Department (NRD).”
Kasthuri said the wife of Sarawak Governor Taib Mahmud, Ragad Waleed, had her citizenship approved within six years, allowing her to vote twice in elections.
“This year, in February, British citizen Daniel Tyler, who had converted to Islam in 2013, married a Malaysian woman in Terengganu in 2017. He was offered permanent resident status after arriving in Terengganu as a tourist in 2009.
“The then BN government would have awarded him citizenship in no time while they dragged their feet on other cases waiting for a long time.”
Kasthuri claimed tens of thousands of men and women, who had been born in Malaysia, had been put on a decades-old waiting list by the NRD, under the home ministry.
Some of them had passed away while still holding their red identity cards.
“Many of them, mainly old Indian men and women whom I have personally met, have said they have given up applying for Malaysian citizenship after having walked up and down the stairs of the NRD office in Putrajaya so many times.”
The MP called on the new Pakatan Harapan government to carry out a task that was considered virtually impossible by the then BN government and award citizenship to those who were born in Malaysia and who had been waiting for decades, including their spouses.
“This is a Herculean task but not an impossible one for the Pakatan Harapan leadership.
“It will be remembered and appreciated by all those who have been dreaming and waiting to be called Malaysians.”
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Sumber Probe success of MyDaftar scheme to give citizenship, urges Kasthuri Patto