COMMENT (Malaysiakini) I still remember the proud day when, just after turning 12, I was taken by my mother to the National Registration Department (NRD) to get my identity card. No doubt it appeared to be a simple looking card, but even back then I knew the importance and weight that it carried. I was advised to keep it very carefully and I made sure I carried it with me at all times whenever I left home. Fast forward to today: many of us never leave our homes without our MyKad. There is a reason for this because there are many things in our daily lives that cannot be done without it.
The MyKad that we possess is a symbolic identity document to show that we are citizens of Malaysia. It is safe to say that a MyKad is needed from cradle to grave.
From birth to the cremation or burial of your body, you would require documentation to prove that you are indeed a citizen of this country.
Your parents could not have got you delivered safely in a hospital without proper documentation of themselves. Without these documents, you would probably have been delivered by some untrained midwife in a house and would have been subjected to risks of infections, being born handicapped or even not surviving at all.
With your birth, the issuance of your birth certificate would also require the valid documentation of your parents. This birth certificate entitles you to privileges such as government hospital treatment, which includes vaccinations, paediatric check-ups and medications, all almost free of cost - and later on, even getting into school.
A MyKad is a mandatory requirement for numerous things - from opening a bank account to seeking employment, enjoying EPF/Socso benefits, making purchases of property, cars or making investments to getting married legally, voting in elections and finally, being able to have your body buried or cremated once you're dead.
Article 15 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration on Human Rights gives everybody the right to a nationality: no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her nationality nor denied the right to change nationality.
As a member of the UN, Malaysia should be strictly adhering to this noble declaration. However, in reality, Malaysia has an alarmingly growing number of stateless people - those denied their legitimate, human right to citizenship.
Unfortunately in Malaysia, the ruling elites within the Umno-dominated government have been systematically using 'citizenship' as one of the means of continuing their autocratic rule.
A 'numbers' game
It has always been a 'numbers' game, with allegations of a tacit, hidden policy of the Umno government to reduce the number of non-Muslim voters and at the same time, increase Muslim voters in critical areas where Umno's dominance is seen to be weak.
In Sabah particularly, several Kadazan-Dusun-Murut (KDM) leaders have alleged that 'Project M' was implemented to ensure that Filipino Muslims and Pakistanis were granted citizenship in large numbers to dilute the KDM majority of the state. Parti Bersatu Sabah supreme council member Dr Chong Eng Leong (left) in his book Lest We Forget estimates that around 600,000 Filipino and Indonesian Muslims were given citizenship in 1986.
Apparently, peninsular Malaysia has not been spared either. Selangor PKR deputy chairperson Zuraida Kamaruddin has alleged that Umno is trying to get citizenship for some 2,000 permanent residents, mainly Indonesians, in Hulu Selangor to bolster its vote bank in the next general election.
PAS central committee member and Tumpat MP Kamaruddin Jaafar has also alleged that Thai Muslims living near the Kelantan-Thailand border are being given citizenship to increase BN's vote bank in Kelantan.
Kamaruddin claims this is part of an attempt to create a body of 'phantom' voters nationwide. It is also believed that Indonesians in the peninsula are enjoying the privilege of citizenship with relative ease, unlike local born people of other races who still hold red identity cards, even those born before independence.
This new 'soft Muslim vote bank', which will forever be dependent on Umno, will provide the ruling elite a perfect counter-balance against not only the non-Muslims but also against the growing number of Muslims who are politically enlightened about the gross abuses and corruption that have become so widespread under the BN.
Furthermore, more and more Malays are beginning to migrate, having become frustrated with the way Umno is running the country.
According to Dr Ahmad Zaharuddin Sani of Universiti Utara Malaysia, thousands of Malays have migrated to Australia, citing career and business opportunities as their reasons. In the state of Victoria alone, there were about 5,000 Malays who are either permanent residents or Australian citizens.
NRD director-general Alwi Ibrahim said that between 2007 and 2009, more than 15 Malaysians have been renouncing their citizenship, every day!
Act of omission and commission
Another methodology employed by Umno is the act of omission and commission in denying citizenship to the softest target within the Malaysian community, the Indian Malaysians, a good number of whom are the sixth generation born in this land.
The Human Rights Party of Malaysia (HRP) estimates that 450,000 Indian Malaysians do not possess citizenship papers. This number may raise eyebrows in disbelief - but the following points may prove that this could indeed be shockingly true.
In 1976, the MIC formed a bureau to register Indian Malaysians with citizenship problems and within five years, more than 40,000 stateless people had been registered. The numbers were staggering, despite the MIC doing this very quietly, without any publicity - which was probably why many people did not know about the exercise.
And that was all the MIC did - register the stateless Indians. Nothing more.
Then, in 1981, the MIC was ordered to close down that bureau and along with it, the more than 40,000 stateless Indians were swept under the carpet. It's anybody's guess who gave the order, but coincidentally, it was about the time Dr Mahathir Mohamad became prime minister.
Malaysia's population stood at 13.43 million in 1981 and today it is around 29 million. Just on that account only, there can easily be more than 100,000 stateless Indians in the country today.
On Jan 21, 2008, the then Selangor menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo called on the Home Ministry to set up a body to handle the plight of 40,000 Indian children in the state who did not have birth certificates. Subsequently, no one heard anything about this matter, ever again.If there were 40,000 stateless Indian children in Selangor alone, what about their parents and grandparents, as well as siblings 18 years and older? This could possibly mean that there could well be more than 100,000 stateless Indian Malaysians in Selangor alone.
On Aug 18 last year, officials from the HRP met with the top NRD brass in Putrajaya and informed the officers that HRP estimates stateless Indians in Malaysia to number 450,000.
The HRP said its detailed investigation revealed these reasons for the situation:
1) Tacit Umno government policy of ignoring the problem of stateless Indians;
2) Lack of political will to resolve these issues by both the BN and Pakatan Rakyat elected representatives;
3) Application processes are too complicated for the illiterate and semi-literate Indian poor;
4) Racial and religious bias against the Indians;
5) Insensitive and hostile over-the-counter NRD staff; and
6) Sheer ignorance of the magnitude of the problem among these officers.
So, it is not as if the Umno government is totally ignorant of the gravity of the problem as well as the causes of it.
On Jan 23 this year, Home Ministry deputy secretary-general Raja Azhar Raja Abdul Manap was quoted as saying, “We do not know how many of these people (Indian Malaysians) are without the documents.” (StarOnline)
Another 'wayang kulit'
Then, on Feb 19, a Special Implementation Task Force (SITF) on the Indian community was set up, in collaboration with the Home Ministry, to register, process and eventually provide fast-track birth certificates and MyKads to stateless Indians.
That was the officially stated purpose - but what has transpired since this makes the SITF another 'wayang kulit'. The campaign was run for just eight days in nine states through 61 NRD branches. The MyDaftar teams merely registered the applicants and gave them reference numbers.
However, the mainstream media reported differently: the propaganda circulated nationwide was that the citizenship and birth certificate problems of the Indian Malaysians were resolved - for as many numbers as each media shouted out.
Interestingly, within just the first 52 hours of work, a total of 14,882 applicants turned up. This would roughly translate to five applications being made every minute - or one stateless Indian registering every 12 seconds.
It was also stated that another 10,000 forms were taken by those who turned up at the counters for their friends or relatives, but that these forms were not returned.
The MyDaftar team, which is under the SITF and is chaired by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, then chose to extend the campaign by a mere five days, despite the numbers turning up to register being very high. The extension was done in a very quiet manner, without media fanfare, probably on fears that even larger numbers could turn up.
Tomorrow: The sorry lives of Indian Malaysians
DR PARAMAN VS is a general practitioner by profession. Just entering into his fifth decade of life, he regretfully admits to having exercised his right to vote only once - which was in the last general election. He drove 200km to do so. His wish is that the millions of Malaysians who have yet to register as voters will do so, soonest possible. He can be reached at paramanvs@yahoo.com.sg
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