KUCHING – Lawas primary school student Jeanny Lianna Ating finally received her Malaysian citizenship, allowing her to skip the RM120 annual school fees and a RM300 medical check-up.
Jeanny, whose plight was highlighted by The Vibes earlier this year has received her birth certificate and citizenship status today, activist Agnes Padan told The Vibes.
Padan said both Jeanny and her mother, Ruran Lukas are elated that Jeanny can continue to go to school without a financial caveat.
Jeanny was barred by the Education Ministry from attending school in March due to her citizenship issues.
In spite of the “stop school order” issued to her, the 9-year-old continued to attend school at SK Long Sebangang – thanks to her labourer father Ating Agong, 55, who agreed to pay the fee and the yearly medical check-up because he did not want his daughter to miss out on schooling.
Padan, who has long been involved with issues relating to bureaucratic snags in gaining citizenship status among Sarawakians, said, “I have been calling and following up with the National Registration Department (NRD) and the Home Ministry in Putrajaya on not only Jeanny’s plight.
“I am actively pursuing 30 other cases of school children in citizenship limbo, including the case of Regina Labo. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.
“There are many more children suffering the same plight as Jeanny, as well as Sarawakian border scouts who have served the state during the Indonesian confrontation and the Malayan Emergency who are stateless.
“Some of these brave soldiers have already passed on without a sense of belonging to the state and nation, being stateless.”
In Jeanny’s case, she said she wrote again to NRD a week ago.
“They asked me to submit her application again which to me is not necessary as they already have her documents.
“The annual fee may not seem huge for urban parents but for the poor in rural Sarawak, it is a painful sum. Regina’s parents are still saddled with this heavy ‘penalty’.
“While I see the gift of citizenship to Jeanny as a grand Merdeka present, I plead to the authorities to act on such cases with a sense of consistency and urgency as disruption to schooling can mean a heavy toll not only to Sarawak’s young citizenry but to the state as well.”
When contacted, opposition politician Lina Soo told The Vibes bureaucracy in matters pertaining to citizenship has for long been a thorn in the flesh of Sarawakians.
“It is a never-ending problem. When one case is settled, countless others come to the table. This issue is always an ‘unfinished business’ that needs the collaboration of various agencies in Sarawak and in Putrajaya.
“I do not see why when one parent is proven to be a citizen, and the other is not, citizenship to the offspring is denied. In the case of Jeanny, her father is a citizen but her mother is Indonesian. Should Jeanny be made to suffer for this?
“I appeal to the state Women, Children and Community Wellbeing Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah to pressure the Gabungan Parti Sarawak to treat this issue of bureaucracy in issuing citizenship to qualified Sarawakians as an urgent priority.” – The Vibes, August 19, 2022
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