Home Ministry officials are uncooperative and rude while Indians have a lackadaisical attitude in registering their newborn children and even marriages, claims the SITF chairman.
PETALING JAYA: The issue of stateless Indians in the country is aggravated by Home Ministry officials handling the matter and Indians themselves who have a careless attitude, said the Special Implementation Taskforce (SITF) chairman N Siva Subramaniam.
Based on interviews conducted on these stateless Indians, he said that the major complaint was the “unfriendly” nature of Home Ministry officers when interviewing them.
“One officer even had the audacity to tell the people that he did not see the reason why he should issue them documents because they were foreigners. He even told them that they can apply countless of times but they will not be granted identification papers,” Siva alleged.
However, he said the National Registration Department (NRD), on the other hand, was the opposite.
“The NRD handles these causes very well. It has a 90% success rate. It is cooperative and listen to the people before making a conclusion.
“We want them [stateless people] to be given fair treatment based on merit. We also want cases to be processed fast,” said the former Suhakam commissioner.
Siva said it normally takes two years for the relevant authorities to approve an application and this time frame was too long.
“This issue is something we feel strongly about. We want a firm commitment from the Home Ministry in particular.
”We have people who live far away in estates. They have to fill up forms, go for interviews, but in the end, these things end up in vain. We don’t want this to happen yet again,” he said.
He said the problem is further complicated by Indians, especially those living in estates or rural areas, who do not register marriages or birth.
“The problem is immense and we have also discovered that a lot of Indians do not register their marriage. They have to realise that it is important for the marriage to be registered. If not, the child is illegal,” he added.
Siva said these people are mostly uneducated as they could not afford formal education.
“As they are uneducated, you cannot equate them with university graduates. Furthermore, they are poor,” he said.
Indian deputy home minister needed
With regard to the welfare and documentation of Indians holding red and green identity cards (IC), he said there are 40,000 of them who are red identity card holders.
The red IC is for those who are eligible to be citizens but are not a citizen while those with green IC are those who do not know their biological parents.
“The government will know the exact figure. As for those with green IC, there are about 5,000 cases,” he added.
Siva suggested that a Indian deputy home minister be appointed to look into the matter.
“If we can have a Chinese deputy home minister, I don’t understand why we cannot have an Indian as deputy home minister,” he said.
On the deadline to solve this problem, Siva said no country in the world can solve the problem of stateless people.
“Statelessness is a never-ending story and it is not just an Indian problem. We can only curtail the problem but we can never manage to totally solve it,” he said.
He also heaped praises on Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak for taking a hands-on approach in trying to solve the issue.
“He has passion and is a great Muslim. He is the first prime minister who dared to go down and talk to the people. Whenever we bring up an issue he looks into it immediately. Whenever there’s a programme, he will be there. He will sit with the people, talk to them.
“I’ve never seen a prime minister who is so down to earth, who is genuine in wanting to settle issues,” said Siva.
PETALING JAYA: The issue of stateless Indians in the country is aggravated by Home Ministry officials handling the matter and Indians themselves who have a careless attitude, said the Special Implementation Taskforce (SITF) chairman N Siva Subramaniam.Based on interviews conducted on these stateless Indians, he said that the major complaint was the “unfriendly” nature of Home Ministry officers when interviewing them.
“One officer even had the audacity to tell the people that he did not see the reason why he should issue them documents because they were foreigners. He even told them that they can apply countless of times but they will not be granted identification papers,” Siva alleged.
However, he said the National Registration Department (NRD), on the other hand, was the opposite.
“The NRD handles these causes very well. It has a 90% success rate. It is cooperative and listen to the people before making a conclusion.
“We want them [stateless people] to be given fair treatment based on merit. We also want cases to be processed fast,” said the former Suhakam commissioner.
Siva said it normally takes two years for the relevant authorities to approve an application and this time frame was too long.
“This issue is something we feel strongly about. We want a firm commitment from the Home Ministry in particular.
”We have people who live far away in estates. They have to fill up forms, go for interviews, but in the end, these things end up in vain. We don’t want this to happen yet again,” he said.
He said the problem is further complicated by Indians, especially those living in estates or rural areas, who do not register marriages or birth.
“The problem is immense and we have also discovered that a lot of Indians do not register their marriage. They have to realise that it is important for the marriage to be registered. If not, the child is illegal,” he added.
Siva said these people are mostly uneducated as they could not afford formal education.
“As they are uneducated, you cannot equate them with university graduates. Furthermore, they are poor,” he said.
Indian deputy home minister needed
With regard to the welfare and documentation of Indians holding red and green identity cards (IC), he said there are 40,000 of them who are red identity card holders.The red IC is for those who are eligible to be citizens but are not a citizen while those with green IC are those who do not know their biological parents.
“The government will know the exact figure. As for those with green IC, there are about 5,000 cases,” he added.
Siva suggested that a Indian deputy home minister be appointed to look into the matter.
“If we can have a Chinese deputy home minister, I don’t understand why we cannot have an Indian as deputy home minister,” he said.
On the deadline to solve this problem, Siva said no country in the world can solve the problem of stateless people.
“Statelessness is a never-ending story and it is not just an Indian problem. We can only curtail the problem but we can never manage to totally solve it,” he said.
He also heaped praises on Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak for taking a hands-on approach in trying to solve the issue.
“He has passion and is a great Muslim. He is the first prime minister who dared to go down and talk to the people. Whenever we bring up an issue he looks into it immediately. Whenever there’s a programme, he will be there. He will sit with the people, talk to them.
“I’ve never seen a prime minister who is so down to earth, who is genuine in wanting to settle issues,” said Siva.
No comments:
Post a Comment