KUCHING, Oct 22 ― Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah hopes the new federal government will continue to prioritise the citizenship issues in Sarawak.

She said citizenship is a particular area where the state government deals with the federal government.

"This is something very close to our hearts and we hope that with the new government, this particular issue on citizenship, hopefully in terms of the process, the time taken to grant or to provide the answers to the applicants can be shortened.

"Citizenship being under the federal government jurisdiction, our initiative starting in 2016 was to form a special committee that can facilitate at our level, and that was allowed when it was established in 2016, Citizenship Special Committee under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution (Special Circumstances),” she said after a press conference on Sarawak Authors Festival 2022 themed ‘Legasi’ at her ministry’s office on Thursday.

She added her ministry’s role is only to facilitate the application process at the state level.

"We make sure that forms and all the documents needed are all there, so that when the forms are submitted, and go to the special committee, we make sure that the applications are complete with all the documents.

"With the support from this special committee, our committee is to facilitate, recommend and then it will go to the Home Ministry, where it will go through two sections ― the National Registration Department (JPN) and the Citizenship Section ― and finally, the minister.

"The final stage is the minister and only the minister signs the document,” she said.

Fatimah said her ministry is also hoping for a reduction of the time taken to process citizenship applications, to a maximum two years.

"It has been done before, we are sure that can be done. Two years is acceptable, shorter of course better, but four to five years is not acceptable because by that time, the child has grown up or some of the children may already be 21 years old or above.

"Once they reach 21 and above, they are no longer qualified to apply for citizenship under Article 15(A), but to re-apply again, and this time it is under different Article, namely Article 19 of the Federal Constitution, which means a person may acquire citizenship by naturalisation, and the period taken to apply under this Article will be longer,” she said.

She said the government was very concerned because the longer it takes, the more hardship the applicants and their families will suffer ― some could be deprived of education and health facilities that Malaysian citizens can enjoy.

"Even if they can go to school, their status is still foreigner, meaning they still have to pay the foreigner’s fees, which for primary school is RM120 per year, secondary school is RM240 per year. Some can pay and some cannot pay, especially if they are asked to pay lump sum of RM120.

"This is a big concern to us, education...without education, the children’s future will be affected and they can become social outcasts in our community and many doors will be closed to them,” she said. ― Borneo Post