KUALA LUMPUR: The granting of citizenship in Sabah has been suspended pending the outcome of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) investigation into the illegal immigrant problem in the state.
Home Minister Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaffar told Parliament that processing of applications and granting of citizenship would continue after the completion of the RCI probe.
He said the granting of citizenship in Sarawak, however, was going on as usual through an outreach programme to ensure that local children could enjoy the benefits of education and government assistance by having Malaysian citizenship.
Wan Junaidi was responding to Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing (BN-Bintulu) who wanted to know about the ministry's plans in solving the citizenship application problem in Sabah dan Sarawak.
He said special powers under the state's law would be given to village heads, community leaders and Chinese kapitans to assist the National Registration Department's offices in determining the marital status and citizenship of the applicants' parents.
He urged elected representatives with constituents having problems pertaining to citizenship to see him, bringing along the relevant documents.
To Tiong's original question on the total number of citizenship applications approved in Bintulu, Sarawak in the last five years, Wan Junaidi said 1,507 were approved.
On backlog cases, he said at the moment there were no citizenship applications under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution that were categorised as backlog.
He said the burden of proving eligibility for Malaysian citizenship rested with each applicant.
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