Dec 9 2012 - Malaysiakini
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has disputed Pakatan Rakyat's claim that there are 300,000 Indian Malaysians who are stateless because they had no identity cards.
While addressing the MIC national general assembly this morning, Najib said that the number was being exaggerated, but did not estimate the number of those suffering from this longstanding problem.
“First of all, there are no 300,000 stateless Indians. We have done the registration. I have checked again just now with (Human Resource Minister) Subramaniam Sathasivam and he said 9,000 had registered.
“Of these, 4,500 cases have been settled and citizenship had been issued (to them). Another 2,000 are being processed,” he said.
A significant number of ethnic Indians, and to a lesser extent some indigenous communities in Sabah and Sarawak, are born without citizenship papers.
While addressing the MIC national general assembly this morning, Najib said that the number was being exaggerated, but did not estimate the number of those suffering from this longstanding problem.
“First of all, there are no 300,000 stateless Indians. We have done the registration. I have checked again just now with (Human Resource Minister) Subramaniam Sathasivam and he said 9,000 had registered.
“Of these, 4,500 cases have been settled and citizenship had been issued (to them). Another 2,000 are being processed,” he said.
A significant number of ethnic Indians, and to a lesser extent some indigenous communities in Sabah and Sarawak, are born without citizenship papers.
Reasons for this phenomenon varies - which includes logistics, illiteracy, poverty and ignorance - but critics claim that the ruling party do not see any insentive in rectifying the problem.
Without proper documentation, victims suffer complications in entering school, access to public healthcare and the ineligibility to vote, among others.
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