MIRI – Sarawak PKR leaders and members are taking part in statewide efforts to help locate stateless locals, especially those living in the very remote interior.
State PKR deputy chairman Senator Abun Sui said the party’s grassroots are being mobilised towards this aim.
He told The Vibes that he is also personally on the ground for this purpose.
Sui, who is PKR branch chief for the Belaga parliamentary constituency, said Belaga is one of the districts where it is believed that there are still many stateless individuals scattered throughout the far reaches of the jungles and mountains.
“I am also helping out in this purpose of locating those in Belaga who are still without birth certificates and identity cards.
“We have dozens of very remote villages and longhouses located in the deep interior. Some are accessible only by many hours of walking or river boat rides,” he said.
“I know for a fact that there are still many local natives without personal documents, such as in places like Long Busang and Long Singgut.
“We in PKR Sarawak will help locate them and help them with the necessary forms and other processes of applying for their birth certificate and identity card,” he said when interviewed.
On July 24, the special joint-committee on citizenship approval formed by the federal and Sarawak governments was told to be more aggressive in seeking out those in rural Sarawak who are without birth certificates and identity cards.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said he wants to see more mobile units deployed into the state’s remote interior.
Speaking that day when attending a function at Wisma Bapa Malaysia in state capital Kuching to meet a group of stateless individuals whose applications for citizenship have been recently approved, he said his ministry wants to see more thorough coverage.
“So far, my ministry has received from the state government 946 applications from stateless individuals in Sarawak for their citizenship applications to be considered.
“We have recently approved more than 60 of these applications already. They will get letters confirming the approval of their citizenship,” he had said.
There are as many as 6,000 rural longhouses and remote scattered villages throughout Sarawak, a state as big as the whole of peninsula Malaysia.
Many of them still do not have proper road links with the outside world. – The Vibes, August 1, 2023
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