Nov
15
2008
Remember Rajeshvari?
Looks like she’s back with her parents after some initial misunderstanding. After being advised, she’s suing all those relevant folks, including the Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar. For RM6 million.
Perak EXCO Sivanesan is helping out.
Something new is mentioned this time. It seems the police promised to get her thumbprints after she was arrested, but never did so.
Rajeshvari claimed she had told police she was a Malay-sian and that she could not recall her identity card number as she had lost it. Police pro-mised to get her thumbprint to facilitate investigations but failed to do so. She had also informed Immigration officials that she was a Malaysian, but no action was taken.
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Nov
15
2008
As NRD opens its counters on weekends (half-day) from mid December onwards to
tackle the stateless people case, Deputy Minister
Murugiah provides some insight on why there are Indians without identification documents:
He said that some of the Indians who came to see him did not have birth certificates because their parents had not registered their births.
“As a result, they are unable to apply for an identity card, attend school, get a job or register their marriage.
“They live in perpetual fear of being nabbed and detained along with illegal immigrants.
“Their predicament is the result of their parents, mostly estate workers, being illiterate, poor, ignorant or irresponsible.”
Murugiah said most were displaced when plantations made way for development.
“Some of them may have misplaced or lost their documents and cannot trace them. They have given up hope of getting replacements because of NRD’s stringent procedures.”
Meanwhile, NRD director says:
He said NRD staff members would sit down with these people and try to identify the problem.
“But unless they come to us and give us some proof of being Malaysians we cannot help.
“Our officers will thoroughly investigate all cases. If they do not have any form of documents they could be foreigners trying to stay on in Malaysia or illegals.”
This is a good move as groups like MIC Youth and NGOs can make use of weekends to help the community.
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Oct
25
2008
The wheels are in motion. Hindraf has been banned. MIC announces it welcomes HINDRAF members to join MIC. Now a task force WILL (can you remember how many WILLs have been said and its status now?) set up to look into problems of Indians without proper identification. Deputy PM Najib announced this. Actually a task force was set up for Sabah last week (WAS!) to settle similar problem faced by Sabahans.
The Government will set up a task force to look into the problems faced by Indians born in Malaysia who have no birth certificates and identity cards, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
The Deputy Prime Minister said there were 20,000 to 30,000 Malaysian Indians who had no documentation and that he had raised the issue at last week’s Cabinet meeting.
“Malaysians born in this country must be given ICs and birth certificates. We have decided that the Home Ministry will set up a special task force to provide genuine citizens with proper documents,” he said Thursday in his speech at the Bazaar Deepavali in Brickfields.
He stressed that this applied to only Malaysians of Indian origin born here, and not those who came from India for work or other purposes.
Can anyone venture a guess why this is announced now? Surely this is not a new problem that fell from the sky. So what changed? Is it due publicity of such cases in the media? Is it due to MIC? Is it due to BN’s rebranding? Or is due to the “H” word? Is it mere coincidence? Is it due to change of political climate?
For many years, MIC Youth has been trying to solve this problem. T Mohan said they could only solve few cases at one time and the success rate was low. So, what changed?
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