The new S4S/Sadia initiative follows a meeting on Monday between the new NRD Sarawak Director, a local, and 40 rural applicants denied their nationality status. Jaban charged that the Director only turned up after the group threatened to camp at the NRD office until he met them. “The NRD Director complained that the Home Minister has the sole discretion.”
“Even he is not in the know on how the Home Minister exercises his discretion.”
Jaban pointed out that Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s parents were both Indonesian. “It’s not the done thing that he exercises sole discretion on who gets personal documents in the country.”
“Does he exercise his discretion according to his whims and fancies? Otherwise, the NRD Sarawak Director would be in the know.”
It was not immediately clear whether NRD Putrajaya referred to MA63 and the constitutional documents on Malaysia when deciding on citizenship cases in Sabah and Sarawak or relied solely on the Federation of Malaya Agreement 1948 and the Federation of Malaya Independence Act 1957. Article 160 of the Federal Constitution, in defining Federation, takes its cue from the Malayan Agreement and Act.
S4S Spokeswoman Karen Shepherd believes that greater autonomy at NRD Sarawak, in line with MA63, will facilitate significant reforms that will reflect the actual situation on the ground in the state. “Putrajaya failed to take into account the special circumstances in Sarawak especially on the Orang Asal.”
“If they have personal documents, more of them would be on the electoral rolls.”
She said S4S had identified 700 cases, during its recent signature drive for the Autonomy Petition, with a variety of issues on personal documentation. As a test sample, the NGO has selected 18 candidates to take up with the NRD together with Sadia. The candidates, according to her, come from Mongkos, Mujat, Mentu Tapu and Balai Ringin.
Briefly, the two NGOs do not want to see all NRD decisions for Sarawak being made in Putrajaya.
Revisiting the cases of the 40 applicants, Shepherd said that 17 of them were denied their nationality as a result of having foreign mothers “These children have been excluded from schools. They have a right to education under international law and the UN Charter.”
“This is a violation of human rights.”
Shepherd, who is Orang Asal herself but listed as Eurasian, said there were infants in her records who were listed as fatherless although the parents were married under Native Customary Law, which has been held by the Federal Court in NCR land cases to have the force of law. “These are cases where the father himself was present to register the birth of the child.”
There are Sarawakians, she lamented, who have lived all their lives without an IC “just because they were not able to follow the NRD Putrajaya procedures as a result of the difficult geographical terrain and/or they didn’t have access to information. This affects the next generation as well.”