Sad to hear the unfulfilled wishes of MP Kapar Manickavasagam’s mother. 56 years and still didn’t get citizenship.

At least my mother in law fared better, after trying for so long, will be getting her citizenship hopefully by next month.  She was born in Malaysia (but lived in India for a short while), married a Malaysian school teacher, and all her kids are Malaysians. She applied during MyDaftar again, but surprisingly, her name  was missing in the successful applicants list. After checking with NRD, it seems like some documents were lost in translation and we did not get the letter. Anyway, all issues settled and hope to hear good news soon.  And yeah, while should thank NRD and MyDaftar campaign, the resentment is still there on why it took so long and special program to settle it.

S Manickavasagam (PKR-Kapar) today put a human face to a long-standing issue by sharing with the Dewan Rakyat how his mother died without a Malaysian citizenship after 56 years of waiting.

He said that despite migrating from India to the Federated Malay States before 1957, she died last year only a permanent resident.

“I am an MP and I brought her to Putrajaya several times, and yet they didn’t give her an identity card.

“She was able to sing Negaraku, (speak) fluent Bahasa Malaysia and even English. Why?” he said while debating the budget.

According to the National Registration Department website, a holder of the red identity card is a permanent resident while a blue identity card denotes that the holder is a citizen.

His Sabak Bernam born mother-in-law, too, is facing the same conundrum and has also waited 56 years for her citizenship.

“I also did a search and found Tan Kim, aged 77 and born in Pahang who is still waiting for her identity card,” he added.

This, Manickavasagam (above) said, is despite 42,493 people awarded citizenships from 2008 to Mar 2, 2012.

Citing a written reply to him by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, he said as of Feb 29, there are 225,222 people who hold Malaysian permanent residency.

Of this, 162,233 are Indonesians, 35,856 are Filipinos, 8,950 Thais, 4,412 Cambodians and 13,771 are from other countries.

Speaking to Malaysiakini later, Manickavasagam said that the fact that his mother had died without gaining citizenship had really saddened him.

“That is why I am fighting for all mothers to have blue identity cards,” he said.

source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/211329

I wonder if he applied through the MIC initiated MyDaftar campaign which was started since last year February.  Talking about MyDaftar, I can’t find detailed statistics but according to reports published in various sources:

9,529 people especially Malaysians of Indian descent had applied for citizenship. Of the total, 5,593 applicants were successful (I assume they’ve got citizenship, and that’s about 59%).

source: http://www.thesundaily.my/news/291826

The MyDaftar programme has received 9,529 documentation applications from the Indian community since May said Coordinator of the Special Implementation Taskforce (SITF) of the Cabinet Committee on Indian Community in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk N. Siva Subramaniam

He said from the total, 6,527 were applications involving citizenship while the remaining was for other documentation registration such as birth certificate, marriage and identity card.

“The application for citizenship involving foreigners with entry permits numbered 3,770 and from the total, 2,016 were approved by the Home Ministry (KDN).

“We also received 1,922 citizenship registration applications from the Indian community born in Malaysia after independence and 1,479 [77% success rate] were approved by the NON,” he added.

source: http://www.mic.org.my/news-events/mic-news/2012/9500-applications-received-indian-community-under-mydaftar

He said MyDaftar also received 708 citizenship applications from those who were married to Malaysians and from the total, 600 applications [about 85% success] were approved by

KDN.

MyDaftar also received 12 citizenship applications from the children of such citizens and from the total, eight were approved by KDN.

On documentation of late registration of birth, Siva Subramaniam said  there were 1,778 applications and from the total 1,459 applications were approved by

KDN.

Interestingly, PKR highlighted two cases where the documents were issued under MyDaftar, but upon checking the citizenship status in the documents were “yet to be determined” (refer http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/199660).

 It would be good if proper statistics are revealed.