Bill Jugah
SIBU (July 3): The Rajang branch of Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (Sadia) has proposed for the government to create a temporary personal document for ‘stateless’ or undocumented individuals while they wait for their applications for Mykad and other relevant documentations to National Registration Department (JPN) to be approved.
Sadia Rajang chairman Bill Jugah pointed out that in doing so, these individuals could have access to services like opening bank accounts and contributing to their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) retirement saving schemes.
“The government could make available such mechanism, such as temporary MyKad-like card for the stateless or undocumented individuals who are waiting for their applications to JPN to be approved.
“In this sense, the government also reserves the authority to revoke their citizenship should they not abide by the law.
“At the same time, means to expedite the citizenship application’s process must be implemented,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Bill acknowledged the problems and restrictions faced by the stateless individuals, many of whom are actually citizens but are without any documentation due to certain issues or circumstances.
“They are not in the government’s database – this is going to affect not only them, but also their next generation.
“There would be many hurdles for them, especially in education where they could be denied of free text books and other facilities.
“Perhaps, Form 3 is as far as they could go,” he lamented.
Bill also believed that this problem would also affect the government in the long-run, in that it could potentially lose out on the contributions, in term of human capital and investments.
“These stateless individuals could become the potential workforce that would participate in nation-building,” said Bill.
from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3huUy5Z
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment