I applause the effort of Penang State Government to help the stateless people in Penang. Since the Stateless People Programme was formed in February, the Penang government has to date assisted 265 individuals to apply for proper documentation including birth certificates, identity cards and citizenship.
However, we need cooperation from National Registration Department and Home Affairs Ministry to solve the plight of these stateless people.
According to a parliamentary written reply from Home Affairs Minister dated March 11, 2009, there were 32,440 stateless children in Malaysia.
In another parliamentary written reply dated November 5, 2009, Home Affairs Minister said there were 374,500 red identity card holders in Malaysia.
However, when I raised the same question in Parliament on September 24, 2013, Minister of Home Affairs now claimed that NRD did not keep record of the number of stateless people in our country. A sudden change of reply made us wonder if it is an effort to cover up the seriousness of the issue.
Article 7 of Convention on the Rights of the Child states that:
- The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.
- States Parties shall ensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with their national law and their obligations under the relevant international instruments in this field, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless.”
It is regrettable that even though Malaysia has accepted CRC on February 17, 1995, we expressed reservation with respect to article 7. Failure to accept article 7 of CRC has caused many stateless children facing difficulties in getting education, finding a job and forming a family in the future.
Even if our government is not ready to give all children born in Malaysia citizenship, we urge the government to loosen restrictions. Reply from Home Affairs Minister is always that citizenship is a privilege and not as of right, however, based on humanitarian grounds, those stateless children whose parent, biological or adopted, is a Malaysian, should be given Malaysian nationality. If hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants could obtain IC in Sabah under the notorious IC project, we see no reason why there can’t be some leniency upon the stateless children in our nation.