KUCHING: A new Suhakam commissioner from Sarawak is making it a priority to address the problem of persons without identification documents in the state.
To Dr Madeline Berma, this is a pressing issue of equal importance as the more common one involving native customary rights (NCR) land.Not having identity cards, she said, is the beginning of poverty.
“This is about the future of the children. Without identity cards, they cannot go to school, they cannot have the benefits of government healthcare and they cannot get jobs or travel.
“The problem is even bigger because it will go to the next generation. Once they don’t have identification documents, their children also will not have them.
“That leads to inter-generational poverty, when poverty is transferred from one generation to the next,” she said.
Madeline, whose appointment was announced in June, said Suhakam should be seen as effective in addressing this problem.
She wants to reach out to those without documents, as many of them live in rural areas and face financial difficulties in going to urban centres to register.
“What I want to do is to go en masse. We identify a place where a lot of people can come and we will go to that particular area and bring in the National Registration Department so that they can do the registration immediately.
“We plan to do that and we want to be visible in terms of addressing this issue,” she said.
Madeline said this did not mean Suhakam would ignore land issues in the state but would continue to address them as well.
“I’m not saying that we are going to push land issues aside. What I’m saying is that besides land, our main focus now is the problem of persons without identity cards.”
Madeline also hoped more Sarawakians would come forward to submit complaints to Suhakam.
She said the state had the lowest number of complaints in the country, with only 57 received last year compared to 558 in Sabah and 565 in the peninsula.
“Is it because we don’t have any problems? Or could it be lack of awareness that people can bring up complaints to Suhakam?” she said.
To address this, she proposes having a space in each of the state’s 12 administrative divisions for people to submit complaints.
“We will have our complaints section in the Resident and district offices, who will forward them to us,” she said.
To Dr Madeline Berma, this is a pressing issue of equal importance as the more common one involving native customary rights (NCR) land.Not having identity cards, she said, is the beginning of poverty.
“This is about the future of the children. Without identity cards, they cannot go to school, they cannot have the benefits of government healthcare and they cannot get jobs or travel.
“The problem is even bigger because it will go to the next generation. Once they don’t have identification documents, their children also will not have them.
“That leads to inter-generational poverty, when poverty is transferred from one generation to the next,” she said.
Madeline, whose appointment was announced in June, said Suhakam should be seen as effective in addressing this problem.
She wants to reach out to those without documents, as many of them live in rural areas and face financial difficulties in going to urban centres to register.
“What I want to do is to go en masse. We identify a place where a lot of people can come and we will go to that particular area and bring in the National Registration Department so that they can do the registration immediately.
“We plan to do that and we want to be visible in terms of addressing this issue,” she said.
Madeline said this did not mean Suhakam would ignore land issues in the state but would continue to address them as well.
“I’m not saying that we are going to push land issues aside. What I’m saying is that besides land, our main focus now is the problem of persons without identity cards.”
Madeline also hoped more Sarawakians would come forward to submit complaints to Suhakam.
She said the state had the lowest number of complaints in the country, with only 57 received last year compared to 558 in Sabah and 565 in the peninsula.
“Is it because we don’t have any problems? Or could it be lack of awareness that people can bring up complaints to Suhakam?” she said.
To address this, she proposes having a space in each of the state’s 12 administrative divisions for people to submit complaints.
“We will have our complaints section in the Resident and district offices, who will forward them to us,” she said.
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