On the 26th of September we took in a group of 40 or so stateless but hopeful people – children and adults to the JPN office in Bukit Mertajam for resolving their problem of statelessness. At the end of the day, JPN accepted 13 applications for the BCs and the ICs with some of the applications deferred, rejected or redirected to other JPN centers. In that sense we did not manage to meet our objectives completely.
Of particular concern is the way the decisions are being made, on the acceptance of the application by the JPN. There was one family of six children – the family of Maruthai and Punidadevi whose applications were not accepted by the JPN officers on that day. We had to put in a huge amount of work just to put the applications thogther. The reasons given for non acceptance was that photographs of two of their children who were not present that day, and who do have their birth certificates were not produced and that the application could not be sponsored jointly by Maruthai and Punidadevi and that an additional witness was required beyond the Hospital attestation of their birth and sponsorship of the mother and the step mother.
These additional requirements which were the basis for the non-acceptance are superfluous to the only requirement in the Malaysian Federal Constitution as in Article 14 (excerpted and reproduced below) and in that sense the rejection of the applications for their Birth certificates is unconstitutional and is a wilful denial of a fundamental right to a citizen by the Government of Malaysia .
Article 14 of the federal constitution states:
Citizenship by operation of law
[Article 14(1)(b)]
CITIZENSHIP BY OPERATION OF LAW OF PERSONS BORN ON OR AFTER MALAYSIA DAY
1. Subject to the provisions of Part III of this Constitution, the following persons born on or after Malaysia Day are citizens by operation of law, that is to say:
(a) every person born within the Federation of whose parents one at least
is at time of the birth either a citizen or permanently resident in the
Federation; and
The basis for the non-acceptance of the application and continuing denial of statehood are also in contravention of the Registration Of Births And Deaths (Special Provisions) Act 1975 subsections 5 and 6 (excerpted and produced below). The requirement for a qualified person is fully met by the attestation of the Government General Hospital, the production of “Tiada Rekod” status in the search form LM14 and the production of an additional witness in the form of the stepmother in LM 27.
LAWS OF MALAYSIA Act 152, REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS
(SPECIAL PROVISIONS) ACT 1975
Persons qualified to give information:
Subsection 5. (1) The following persons shall be qualified to give information
concerning a birth, that is to say:
(a) father of the child;
(b) mother of the child;
(c) the occupier of the house in which the child was, to the
knowledge of the occupier, born;
(d) any person present at the birth;
(e) any person having charge of the child; and
the birth.
Subsection 6. (1) A Registrar shall record such particulars as may be prescribed
in a report book in the prescribed form concerning any birth or
death given to him by any person qualified to do so.
(2) A Registrar may before recording the birth or death, put
questions to the informant to satisfy himself of the occurrence of
the birth or death, that the informant is qualified to give the
information and that the birth was to or the death was that of a
citizen of Malaysia.
Further, this act is also in contravention of the provisions in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 of which Malaysia is a signatory and has International obligations to comply, from 1995.
Article 8 of the convention states “
1. States Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference.
2. Where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity, States Parties shall provide appropriate assistance and protection, with a view to re-establishing speedily his or her identity.
Article 4 of the convention states:
States Parties shall undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in the present Convention.
Malaysia, as a signatory to this convention is obliged by International Treaty to implement the rights set out in the convention.
This act of not accepting the applications of these children for speedily remedial measures is in direct contravention of the universally accepted rights of a child as set out in this UN Convention on the Rights of Children.
When seen altogether this is a serious breach of Constitutional, Legal ,Statutory and International Treaty obligations on the part of JPN and require that immediate steps be taken by JPN to rectify these unlawful requirements.
On the contrary any Government that had the intent to eliminate this problem will get off from the mind set that the children are all being smuggled in from somewhere else – maybe they think, India and registrations being sought stealthily for them. The way the requirements are structured and the way the JPN staff go about it, that is our perception.
If the Government truly had the intent, its officers at the counters would project a different more accommodating and supportive behaviour. But, in many cases, it just feels like the officers at the counters want to reject the applications of these poor Indian applicants rather than to help establish the bona fide of their application and resolve the problem on hand. Simple examples, like photo not of the right size, photocopying should be done on one side not two, change of forms after filling out one set, and for so many other silly reasons, these officers at the counter just turn these poor people away. This is not just at the JPN counters but also at the General Hospital counters when they are approached for attestation fo births – all kinds of silly reasons are given to deny, to delay, to abdicate.
To surmise all this, it looks like from the top to the bottom, there is just no will to accept the Indian poor as unfortunate victims of the system who need to be helped out. Judging from the grudging support we get all along the way, it looks like there seems to be an invisible policy to actually deny these people their rightful places in the country. If this were not the case, then why all the footdragging on so many suggestions we have given for an improvement to the system.
If the Government is serious about resolving this problem, then it is time for them to come out with a bold program to eliminate this problem once and for all.
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