PERHAPS those who idolise Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail as a champion of stateless people in their quest to become Malaysian citizens have to think twice if the Home Minister truly deserves their praises.
This follows a social media thread from mothers who are still waiting for an answer on their children’s applications under Article 15(2).
For the uninitiated, Article 15(2) of the Federal Constitution states that “the Federal Government may cause any person under the age of 21 whose one of the parents is (or was at death) a Malaysian, to be registered as a citizen upon application made to the Federal Government by his parent or guardian”.
“He either does not know, was poorly briefed by his officers or is deliberately misleading the House (Dewan Rakyat). Which is it?” wondered Galen Centre for Health & Social Policy CEO Azrul Mohd Khalib (@azrulmohdkhalib) who shared the thread.
The head honcho of the independent public policy research and advocacy think tank was referring to a post on X (previously Twitter) of a recent claim in Dewan Rakyat by the PKR secretary-general that his ministry “has resolved 3,000-odd cases of mothers with overseas born children, hence putting a close to the subject raised by NGO Family Frontiers Malaysia”.
The post by Esther #SayaJUGAanakMalaysia (@EstherJohor), a Malaysian mother from Johor, was accompanied by almost a dozen citizenship application status update from the National Registration Department (JPN) website.
Today in parliament our home minister mentioned that ALL cases under Article 15(2) , Malaysian mothers with overseas born children have been resolved. Is it really true? @saifnasution @FamilyFrontiers #PindaPerkara14 pic.twitter.com/Q6J2De4m9J
— Esther #SayaJUGAanakMalaysia (@EstherJohor) March 11, 2024
Below are some of the pending applications which date back to 2017:
Single mother Tee Li Li who is a Malaysian claimed that the citizenship application for her child has been pending since 2017.
When one thought that the stateless issue only affects mothers, a father Daddy Afqar (@zua_al_azmi) came forward to claim that his son who has submitted a citizenship application since 2021, too, is in the waiting list.
Interestingly, when posed the question of the long wait, Daddy Afqar was told by JPN officers that “two to three years of waiting time is nothing new”.
The chain of events led to netizens second-guessing if Saifuddin had verified the statistics before making his statement.
They also questioned if indeed he had spoken untruth in the august house, wouldn’t that be tantamount to contempt of Parliament?
Perhaps netizen Elle 👑 Queen of Tears (@Ellevieraaaa) is right that the Home Minister portfolio might not suit Saifuddin who is also the Pakatan Harapan (PH) secretary-general for “he performed well as the domestic trade and living costs minister” during the 22-month PH administration (May 2018-February 2020). – March 15, 2024
