There are some 150,000 people in the country with no identification documents ranging from the birth certificate to the identity card, said M. Kulasegaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat).
Kulasegaran took the opportunity to raise the issue which was a subject in the motion of thanks on the royal address by Datuk Anifah Aman (BN-Kimanis) yesterday.He said the issue of stateless people failed to get the government’s attention and was a problem that could easily be fixed.
"Some of these people had parents who have died or disappeared but the National Registration Department (NRD) officers refuse to give them documents.
"There must be efforts to be taken to work this out. If we can give amnesty to foreigners who seek refuge here, why can’t we do something for the people of our own country?
"Instead, the NRD sets out 18 conditions before someone can be registered," he added.
Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (BN-Pasir Salak) then questioned Kulasegaran: "Where did Indians come from? What is their status here now? Before, they were in the estates but now they are doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs and engineers."
This sparked a furore amongst the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) MPs deeming the statement as racial based.
Kulasegaran was returned to the floor as Tajuddin shouted in the background accusing Kulasegaran of being afraid of the facts.
"I’m not giving you way. This (man) is drunk on political authority! Sit down, six million dollar man!" Kulasegaran quipped.
This fuelled the fire for Tajuddin who asked for leeway to question the statement.
However, he was not given way and Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud (PAS-Kota Raja) stood up to state that if these arguments continued, no problems will be solved.
"But who is criticising the government?" Tajuddin quipped.
Blocking him out, Siti Mariah asked if the government could "once-and-for-all" find a solution to give them valid identification documents.
"If there is a political will, we can do it but don’t ask for 18 terms and conditions before identity cards and birth certificates are issued," she said.
Kulasegaran agreed with her and when pointed out that other MPs wanted to have a say, said: "I will give way to anyone else but not the six million dollar man."
Tajuddin then called for Point-of-Order calling for the Speaker to ask Kulasegaran to withdraw the statement.
At this point, deputy speaker Datuk Ronald Kiandee put his foot down and advised the MPs to stop name-calling, especially that "title".
"Everytime it is mentioned, he will stand up. There is no need to touch on the issue," Kiandee said, putting an end to the issue.
Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan (BN-Kota Belud) said he was sure these conditions were applicable to the other races.
"They know these rules are set to ensure that only those who qualify get the identification documents," he said.
Kulasegaran argued that it must be understood that there was a high rate of illiteracy and parents do not understand the necessity of a birth certificate and said when PR became the government, it could solve the issue in one day.
Kulasegaran informed the house that since 1997, Indians were the highest in the alcoholic rate, single mothers, criminal cases and school dropouts and there were large numbers of unemployed Indians.
"Labour department figures cannot be trusted because the unemployed do not register with them," he said after being reminded of his time limit.
Earlier, Anifah suggested for a Select Parliamentary Committee to look into the migrants in Sabah and for the government to look into strategies of reducing dependency of foreigners in the state.
"The committee must be responsible to parliament and needs to submit a report on this within a year.
"I know it will take some time but I hope some measures can be implemented in this effort before the next general election," he added.
No comments:
Post a Comment