NRD lodges police report over claims 200,000 granted citizenship

Datuk Ruslin Jusoh (second from right) holding up a copy of the police report.

PUTRAJAYA (Bernama): The National Registration Department (NRD) on Sunday (Sept 29) lodged a police report on the claims made by Twitter and Facebook accounts holder "Tengku Raja Alam Shah" regarding a posting titled "200,000 new recipients of citizenship vow to repay the government".

Its director Datuk Ruslin Jusoh said the report was made at 11am Sunday at the Putrajaya District Police Headquarters to enable the Royal Malaysia Police to conduct an investigation into the claims as the article contained false information.

Speaking to reporters after lodging the report, Ruslin said the number of people stated in the claim was false and unreasonable as the process of obtaining citizenship was very complicated and involved a tight procedure.

"I hope the police will conduct a thorough investigation into the holder of the Twitter and Facebook accounts.

"We also want to find out if the accounts are false or not. If they are legitimate, we ask that the account holder come to the NRD and give us the evidence for the claims he made," he said.

He said the Home Ministry has also issued a statement yesterday denying the claims.

"The NRD views the allegations seriously as we have never issued 200,000 new citizenship certificates," he said.

On Saturday (Sept 28), the NRD issued a statement denying the claims which went viral on the social media alleging that the Pakatan Harapan government had given out citizenships to 200,000 people.

The ministry said the allegations made by Twitter account-holder "Tengku Raja Alam Shah" were untrue, adding that since the change of government in May last year, only 4,000 were eligible to obtain citizenships.

For the record, for the period from May 2018 until Sept 15 this year, the NRD received 19,788 applications for citizenship, and of these, only 4,422 were approved.

According to Ruslin, the NRD will also lodge a report with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) tomorrow on the claims to enable it to conduct investigations and take further action.

"We view this matter seriously so that the public is not easily influenced by such claims which has affected its view of the NRD," he said. - Bernama