KUCHING, Dec 13 — A Sarawakian human rights activist has renewed calls on the state government to demand greater autonomy in the areas of citizenship and matters relating to the registration of its people.
This was following the stories of four former border scouts who are still waiting for citizenship despite defending the country during the confrontation with Indonesia in the 1960s.
Peter John Jaban said the state government should take over the administrative autonomy on the registration of stateless.
“This will allow the state to set administrative requirements that are responsive to the needs of Sarawak, long poorly understood by Putrajaya, and put an end to the issues of statelessness among the natives of the state once and for all,” he said in a statement.
He cited a case of a former border scout 80-year-old Basar Arun as a perfect example of how insidious the issue can be.
He said Basar’s children and grandchildren are also without identification documents.
“The reasons behind his statelessness also exemplify the roots of the problem in the procedures of National Registration Department (NRD),” Jaban said, adding that the problem of statelessness is rife in Sarawak, especially among the natives.
He recalled the formation of a taskforce to register Sarawakians who were without official documents, such as birth certificates and identity cards, in the rural areas.
“For a while, there was a small amount of progress made by the task force, but sadly this was disbanded,” he said.
He added the task force was insufficient, but a much more far-reaching change is required to properly tackle the problem.
Jaban, who has been years campaigning for the stateless to be issued with the citizenship document, stressed that the law is clear that anyone residing in Malaysia at the time of its formation in 1963 or anyone with one Sarawakian parent is entitled to citizenship.
He said NRD, however, seems determined to cling rigidly to a small number of documents as administrative proof to allow citizenship, even if that means denying legitimate applicants their rights.
“With many of the natives, they simply do not have the documents regardless of their birth or parental status and, as a result, their rights as citizens are denied them.
“The state NRD must be allowed to conduct proper analysis on a case-by-case basis that is relevant and appropriate to a Sarawak context.
“This is why we feel the state must have the power to decide on these matters,” he said that for many years, Putrajaya has shown a complete disregard for the specific individualities that make Sarawak,” he said.
He said the Sarawak government if it is empowered, can embark on a mass registration drive to ensure all legitimate Sarawakians get their citizenship and enjoy the benefits and privileges which come with it.