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Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email Minister Ng Yen Yen mentioned that her Women, Family and Community Development Ministry is working with Registration Department and state governments to resolve problem of children without “documentation”. She goes on to say that these documents were needed for schooling and medical access. Wonder what are those “documents” because she says it does not include identification cards.
Selangor is mentioned as having a high number of people without proper identification, especially from the Indian community. Figures vary from 20,000 to 80,000 depending on who you ask. Besides Selangor, Sabah also has a very high number of children without identification – usually those with illegal immigrant parents, unlike Selangor where the parents are local Indians without any identifications themselves. Kind of a generation problem.
We hope this program will succeed, instead of being dragged until next election season. However, its wiser and most likely cost effective to tackle identification card and citizenship issue at the same time. No point in having another round of exercise to investigate, document and solve identification card problem. The Registration Department should be able to decide on giving birth certificate and/or identity cards based on data collected by the ministry workers, NGOs, state government staff etc.
Before election, this stateless people topic was a hot issue in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, and Malacca as there were cases of estate workers who for generation were without any proper identification. Coupled with total illiteracy, these people were perfect for cheap labor in estates and farm located in remote areas.
