The Borneo Post reported her as saying the state government should release comprehensive guidelines and standard operating procedures regarding the indicator, which identifies a citizen as a “child of Sarawak”.
Chang said the government also needs to enlighten applicants who have previously applied for the “K” indicator and are currently waiting for the results on whether they should reapply.
“What is the time frame for them to know if their applications have been approved or otherwise?” she asked in a statement.
On Wednesday, it was reported that adopted children without details about their biological parents can now receive the “K” indicator in their identity cards.
State women, childhood and community wellbeing development minister Fatimah Abdullah said the state Cabinet had on Sept 26 approved a proposal to allow adopted children to receive the “K” indicator, regardless of the availability of information on their biological parents.
Meanwhile, Chang said the current proposal on the “K” indicator does not mention its usage for children born out of wedlock to Sarawakian fathers whose names are inserted into birth certificates as biological fathers.
“We have a few families here where the foreign biological mothers came to Sarawak and gave birth to the children here.
“They then abandoned the children with the Sarawakian fathers and returned to their respective countries without registering their marriages, rendering these children illegitimate,” she said.
She said these children were not given the “K” indicator in their identity cards despite being successfully registered as Malaysian citizens under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution.
“The current proposal approved by the state Cabinet should also include these children whose biological fathers are Sarawakians, with the ‘K’ indicator in their identity cards.
“This matter has been ongoing since the time I first wrote to the state secretary in 2021.
“Since then, we have lost many local talents to West Malaysia and even to Singapore because they could not get proper employment here due to not having the ‘K’ indicator in their new identity cards,” she said.
Without the “K” status, indicating a person is Sarawakian, Chang said they would be officially recognised as West Malaysians.
She said since state immigration laws disallow non-Sarawakians from staying in the state indefinitely, these people would need to leave Sarawak every three months to renew their visa to stay in the state, causing them huge inconvenience.
Chang said Sabahans have a “H” on their identity cards while West Malaysians have no such indicators.