This is indeed a tragic story. A young lady who pregnant was detained in Brickfields and kept in immigration detention depot for 11 months – during which she gave birth to a healthy baby boy (10 months old now!). Reason – she was unable to provide proof that she was a Malaysian citizen. 22 year old M. Rajeshvari who was educated up to primary school only, and speaks on a smattering amount of Malay language, could not remember her IC number (which she had lost), and could not provide accurate details on her background. She was jobless. Not in talking terms with her family members, so no one came looking for her. All this led to her detention for 11 months. Due to a stroke of very good luck, her case was forwarded to Malaysian Indian Youth Council vice-president Andrew Raju, who did the necessary follow-up and finally secured her release. She managed to remember her primary school name in Kampar, and Andrew tracked down the rest of the information from there.

Rajeshvari’s lucky release happened because a staff member at a clinic where Logekali was treated for food poisoning last week had alerted Malaysian Indian Youth Council vice-president Andrew Raju. “After my arrest, I kept telling the authorities I was Malaysian but no one believed me,” said a tearful Rajeshvari. Raju, when met outside the depot, said the officers did not pursue her case further as Rajeshvari could not give the right IC number or her parents’ address. “In the beginning, I also had a hard time checking her out because the information she gave turned out to be dead ends, until she recalled her primary school,” he said. Raju then contacted the school’s principal in Kampar in Perak, who managed to trace Rajeshvari’s birth certificate number. Raju then went to the National Registration Department in Putrajaya to get a letter confirming Rajeshvari’s citizenship.

Suhakam is angry with this treatment. Its commissioner Denison Jayasooria said:

One should get to the root of how the verification was done. Holding a citizen like that is a violation of human rights. “If language was a problem, they should have had an interpreter to get to the bottom of it. If it were not for the intervention of the clinic and a voluntary organisation, she would still be in there. He noted that there could be various reasons for her inability to communicate, adding that Rajeshvari may have been terrified, not of sound mind or not confident. “What safeguards are there? How can such a thing be avoided?” Dr Denison said, adding the Immigration Department must be held accountable and that an apology was not enough.

Sound logical too. Language shouldn’t be a barrier.

However, the Immigration Department’s official had a different view:

Immigration Department enforcement chief Datuk Ishak Mohamed said that the burden of proof of citizenship was on the person suspected of being an illegal immigrant. “The new Criminal Procedure Code also allows the suspect to make phone calls to anyone who can help,” he said, pointing out that the police had picked her up, not Immigration officials. “But, please, don’t tell me that after 22 years, you cannot speak Bahasa Malaysia? You mean she would not know how to sing Negaraku either?” he added.

To answer his question – I doubt the girl knows what Negaraku is in the first place. We are talking about primary school dropout, not university graduate. Where in the world can she listen to Negaraku if she last heard it 10 years ago in school? We are looking a someone from poor background, weak in studies, maybe from broken family, and without interest in studies. Would she had the interest to remember Negaraku? A jobless person who is pregnant and being caught by police, stuck in Brickfields, can’t remember IC number because lost the IC – who will she call? What phone number will she remember? But she should be faulted for not being able to talk in Malay language. At least some rojak or bahasa pasar also will do. But wait a minute, even the foreign workers who are in Malaysia for a year or two can speak good (passable) Malay! Does it mean she have to speak like SPM A1 student?

Samy and Dr S.Subra were also talking about this between themselves in the funeral yesterday. They were also wondering how a person could not remember IC number and could not speak Malay language.

I think its a stroke of really bad luck for Rajeshvari that caused her this problem. Lack of education, being at the wrong place at the wrong time, and coupled with bad judgement and lack of initiative by the officials, all led to her misery.

Hopefully, this will be a lesson to all.