While many of us are proud to be called Malaysians, often, we are unaware that there are actually many people living in Malaysia who do not have proper citizenship. Even though they should be!
Well, this matter surfaced when Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng posted on social media inviting people to a talk conducted by the National Registration Department (NRD) on application processes for citizenship status.
Source: The Star
This message was directed to stateless people as well as permanent and temporary residents, according to The Star.
However, the post was wrongly translated and soon went viral on social media as it was only meant to be a talk but somehow, people were led to believe that they would be given citizenship. This led to a massive crowd of stateless, red and green identity card holders appearing at the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) office in hopes of changing their citizenship status.
Source: The Star
The miscommunication might have happened due to the post, which was written in Chinese. The event was eventually put to a halt after Lim got a call from DBKL saying that it had caused a three-kilometre traffic jam in Jalan Kepong.
“There was a wrong message that went viral on social media, saying I’m issuing identity cards and DAP is issuing citizenship,” Lim said in a press conference, adding that the complainants included children and adults, some of whom had been living in Malaysia for three generations.
Source: The Star
“I told DBKL that I am saddened by this huge turnout because the issue of permanent residency and stateless persons is more severe than I thought.”
“A lot of them were conned because they were desperate for a citizenship, some lost tens of thousands while some lost thousands of ringgit,” he added.
These stateless people are not eligible for bank loans, passports or voting.
Source: The Star
One of these stateless people is Go Fu Sheng, 19, who said that he had to rely on his birth certificate because he was born about three months before his parents got married in 1999.
This is because a child would not qualify as a Malaysian if his/her parents’ marriage certificates were obtained and registered with NRD after their child was born.
To handle the large crowd, Lim’s team set up two counters to document the details of those who want to apply for a Malaysian citizenship, as well as to assist the NRD officers in explaining the process and qualification requirements.
Source: The Star
He said that there would be no shortcuts to the process and that those who want to apply would have to go through the proper channels.
“They will have to wait. There will be no on-the-spot exchanges done here. But under the Pakatan administration, there will be no corruption like in one case where a complainant was asked to pay an officer RM10,000 if he wanted a blue identity card,” he said.
Currently, the fees to apply for a MyKad for children under 12 is RM10 while the maximum penalty one has to pay for replacement of lost identity cards is RM1,010 for citizens and RM1,040 for non-citizens. Colour codes for Malaysian identification cards denotes citizenship for blue, red for permanent resident and green for temporary resident.
Were you aware that so many people in the country do not have a proper citizenship in Malaysia? Let’s hope that their applications will be approved by the NRD.
Also read: Tun M Welcomes Skilled Foreign Workers to M’sia, Even Offers Citizenship
