Long wait to become citizens

I AM one of the stateless persons in Malaysia. However, I consider myself lucky compared to many other stateless people in this country.

I was born in Kota Kinabalu in 1999. My mother is Filipino. Unfortunately, my parents’ marriage was not registered and this cost me my citizenship. My brother and I found out we were stateless when he went to apply for a MyKad at the age of 12. We were told that we could still get Malaysian citizenship if we could prove that we are the sons of a Malaysian by doing a DNA paternity test. Unfortunately, our father passed away in 2000.