Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah and Sarawak Chapters of CSO Platform for Reform claim the proposed Federal Constitution amendment on citizenship announced by Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution will adversely affect the indigenous people of Sabah and Sarawak who are still stateless or hold MyPR instead of MyKad.
The CSO Steering Committee said Sabah has constantly been cited as the main cause for the proposed amendments.
“The proposed amendments are not in line with the 1963 Malaysia Agreement where safeguards on citizenship were intentionally introduced to ensure everyone born in Malaysia will not be rendered stateless as stated by the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, late Tunku Abdul Rahman during the parliamentary debates in 1962,” it said in a statement Thursday.
CSO Platform said the Madani Government should provide accurate, transparent and accountable statistics on statelessness before releasing narratives to the public.
“Tens of thousands of Malaysia-born individuals could lose a crucial safeguard –their right to a fair legal process to claim citizenship. The citizenship amendments will affect children of Malaysian families.
“Instead of resolving the dire situation of statelessness, exacerbate the number, especially from vulnerable indigenous communities. Affected are the Penan of Sarawak and Lundayeh of Sabah.
“These communities struggle to obtain government recognition and live without access to basic infrastructure, electricity and education let alone the luxury to travel out of their village that is usually inaccessible even to outsiders to obtain documentation, rendering them unwillingly stateless as ‘invisible’ people of our land.
“The Government should go forward with the progressive amendments for children of Malaysian mothers born overseas, but drop the five regressive proposed amendments.”
It said the Madani Government must safeguard the promise made to Sabah and Sarawak to ensure that no one in Sabah and Sarawak are rendered stateless.
“These were promises continuously made to our forefathers and these rights should not be diluted.
“The prophetic words of Temenggong Jugah during the formation of Malaysia, ‘Anang Malaysia baka tebu, manis dipun tabar di hujung’ (Malaysia should not be like sugar cane, sweet at the top but bland at the end) seems to be coming true especially when more and more rights of Sabahans and Sarawakians are being stripped away at the mercy of the Federal Government,” it said.
It call on the Government to: Provide statistics and demographics for the number of foundlings and children of PR holders who have been granted citizenship in Sabah and Sarawak; Have inclusive consultation sessions with stateless indigenous people to address their plight; and Engage civil society organisations, specifically CSOs/NGOs working closely with the stateless and undocumented grassroot communities.
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