PETALING JAYA: A Sabahan youth coalition has urged the government to consult all the stakeholders before giving citizenship to stateless children in the state amid growing concerns that the move would threaten the future of native Sabahans.
Gabungan Pergerakan Pemuda Sabah (GPPS) which comprises of PBS, Upko and PBRS said the move should be done transparently, and with the consent from the Sabahans.
"Putrajaya should hold a national consultation in order to handle this stateless issue by discussing with the Foreign Ministry, the Philippine Embassy, Unesco, NGOs and other agencies to find a solution," said PBS Youth chief Datuk Jake Nointin in a statement.
Nointin added that there is a growing concern among Sabahan leaders that the move of granting birth certificates to stateless children would only fulfill certain political interests, and would eventually erode the rights of native Sabahans.
"GPPS felt that it was unfair to the native Sabahans who have been living here for generations but have yet to be granted citizenship," he said, adding that the government could instead grant a special pass for identification purposes.
"What needs to be done by the government is to give a special pass to these stateless children for identification purposes and the government can consider their citizenship applications if they fulfill all the criteria," he said.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahidi Hamidi had recently announced that Putrajaya would be working closely with the National Registration Department (NRD) and the Education departments to issue birth certificates to stateless children on humanitarian grounds, to enable them to get education.
He also said that the long-standing problem of the stateless children may be solved soon after the tabling of Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on Illegal Immigrants in Sabah.
Upko Youth chief, Arthur Sen however felt disappointed with Zahid's statement and said that it was an attempt to ignore the standard procedures as stated in the RCI report.
Sen said any action of granting citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants should be done in accordance with the RCI report, which needs to be approved by the cabinet first before it was tabled in Parliament.
"What Zahid did was clearly not following procedures. What is more troubling, the federal government should first consult with the Sabah government on this issue and get the agreement from the Sabah chief minister," he said.
Sen said it felt as if Sabahans were being sidelined in this matter.
"Where will the stateless children go after this? How many of them?," he asked, saying that there is already an overwhelming increase of population in Sabah," he said.
"This is what the native Sabahans are feeling at the moment. They are worried that they might end up being a minority in the state, just like what happened to the indigenous people in the Malaysian peninsula/"
Sen also hoped that the move would be scrapped off and the government would find a way to deport them back to their homeland through a government to a government consultation.
"If the prime minister could be a mediator in the Philippines-Moro peace deal, then it is not impossible for this deportation of stateless children to succeed.
"It is not like we do not sympathise with them or we are being inhumane, we just want the priority is given to the native Sabahans so they will not end up being a minority," he said.
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