Monday, August 6, 2012
We are not humane!
Sorry to say, sometimes our rhetoric does not carry much weight. Our slogans failed to stand while some of our policies are good for backfiring.
Yes, we are not very humane in treating our own people. While we shout around about the basic rights for our own people - education, housing, legal, etc - we are actually still depriving a few hundred thousands of their citizenship.
According to records, the National Registration Dept (NRD) under the Home Ministry had rejected (as July 2010) about 300,000 applications for MyKad and Permanent Residence (PR) status for various reasons.
Of course the government imposes stringent provisions for applicants but there are still rooms to regulate a better law on PR and citizenship.
I think not many or us are aware that there are 'Malaysians' without any ID although there were born and brought up in the country, most of whom are already aged 20 to 50! They found it difficult to enroll in any government schools because they don't possess any identification card, let alone getting a job.
Not to mention Sabah and Sarawak where the case is rampant, there are many such cases in the Peninsular that demand special attention from the government.
These people have to citizenship. They don't belong to any country and by our law, they are labelled as persona non grata, people not wanted by anybody, by any country.
For example, their parents migrated from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia and other countries before and soon after Independence and stayed and worked here. They also died here without proper documents.
Their children were born in Malaysia, also without proper documentation. When they grew up, they speak our language and know everything about they country of their birth. But they found it difficult to get education at government schools. And so, they were left out.
Since birth, they never left the country. Some of them are over 30 years old now, doing odd jobs and are illiterate. Until the day they die, I believe we will still refuse to recognise them as Malaysians.
So, what do we call them? Illegal immigrants? And what crime have they commit for us to deny them their rights as citizens and to enjoy their basic rights?
Some of them are being detained for almost or more than two years now at the detention centers nationwide, notably in Pekan Nenas and Semenyih. The reason being, we got no place to send them as they don't belong to any other countries.
And we keep on 'keeping' them at the detention centers, frustrate them and hoping they will rot inside.
How benevolent are we?
The Home Ministry should look further into this case. While we impose strict procedures on PR applicants, we can still offer PR to foreigners, including artistes and those with money.
We brought in the Palestinians, Rohingyas, Iraqis and others, gave them PR, education and other facilities that are much better than most ordinary Malaysians. We even sponsor their higher education and provided them with good shelter.
But what about these Malaysian-born persona non grata? By rights, they deserve what we enjoy, including the rights to vote. However, nobody in the government is seriously reviewing the matter as we are so busy fighting for politics and power.
We are proud of our achievement and boast aloud of our thrust for education and other basic rights but we at the same time also decline to dirty our hands with things like this. We know about their existence but we did nothing thus far to settle the problems of about these 400,000 persona non grata.
Are we humane?