Hindraf Leadership Senate member N Ganesan said the announcement on the initiative for all Indians aged above 60, holding Malaysian Permanent Resident status (Red IC, non-citizen status) was laudable but had previously proven to be not that useful at all.
He said based on a similar programme, conducted in June 2014, only 5% of 30,000 Indians with Red ICs were given Blue ICs (Malaysian citizenship).
“These are sordid statistics indeed 1,500 who may potentially get a blue IC out of an estimated 30,000 (Red IC holders) through this initiative.
“That makes it 5% of the total problem at best who may succeed.
“This means 95% of the stateless Red IC holders will be left untouched. Can any initiative do worse?” Ganesan said in a statement today.
He was referring to a Bernama report dated June 17, 2014, quoting statistics from the Special Implementation Task Force on the Indian Community of the Prime Minister’s Department.
Ganesan said the number of stateless people in the country “can range upward of a 100,000” and the number of Red IC holders could be understated for political reasons.
“No one really knows how many there are in other categories (besides Red IC holders).
“There has been no policy review to make the ground procedures streamlined and simplified.
“The procedures and requirements and treatment of the poor at the National Registration Department counters remain cumbersome, overwhelming and overbearing.
“The poor people are defeated even before they start.”
Ganesan said the BN Federal Government’s attempts to tackle statelessness in the country remained ineffective and it should stop playing around with the lives of the poor.
“All these 5% campaigns smack at best of utter administrative incompetence and at worst of institutionalised racism, all aimed at perpetuating the status quo.
“But the government and the prime minister continue in their stupor. All these campaigns are totally ineffective. They do not at all address the problem.”
Ganesan said what was regrettable was that the prime minister and the government had reneged on their promise in tackling statelessness in the “BN & Hindraf MoU” signed on April 18, 2013.
“Yet, inspite of this, nothing worthy of mention has happened – the magnitude of the statelessness problem remains a mystery.
“There has been no policy review to make the ground procedures streamlined and simplified.”