He said this follows the disbanding of the Sarawak Special Committee on Citizenship (SCC).

This alternative and more intense personal follow-up means of handling the citizenship applications has also proven to be more effective in producing results, he said in a statement.

Chong, who is federal deputy domestic trade and consumer affairs ministry, said 31 cases were approved within two to three months. More approvals would be forthcoming soon.

“This is also why I view the SCC, headed by Sarawak Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Fatimah Abdullah, as being ineffective in resolving the long-outstanding citizenship application issues faced by so many genuine Sarawakians.”

He said since 2016, the SCC had received 723 applications for citizenship.

But, as at May 2019, three years after the formation of the SCC, only 123 applications had been approved, he said.

At that rate, it would take SCC another 15 years to get the approvals for all the applicants in hand, he added.

On Monday, during a working visit here, Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said his ministry would continue to give priority to citizenship issues, including state-level cases, under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution.

He said the ministry had also formed a special task force at the federal level to solve citizenship issues, including from Sarawak. As such, the federal government feels that there is no need to continue with the state-level committee on the issue.

On July 22, home ministry secretary-general Alwi Ibrahim had sent a letter to Fatimah stating the decision to discontinue the committee.

He said all cases in Sarawak must be referred to or re-submitted to the ministry for coordination purposes.