KLANG, 23 Mar: While the previous Umno-BN administration gave citizenship to hundreds of thousands of foreigners in Sabah easily, there are still many born in this country that are denied citizenship.
Just like Mahaletchumy Subramaniam, 16, a Form 4 student schooling in Pulau Carey, Klang, who have yet to obtain citizenship until now.
The student was even suspended from school and barred from participating in the Kuala Langat district level hockey team because she did not possess an identification card.
Mahaletchumy has applied for more than 10 times to obtain an identification card from the National Registration Department (NRD) but was rejected with the excuse of unclear documentation.
She added that she was referred to the Special Task Force, Implementation, Indian Community Cabinet Committee Member, Datuk Siva Subramaniam several months ago but till now, no response has been received.
She is among 40 members of the public from Banting, Pulau Carey and Klang who held a peaceful demonstration for about two hours at the NRD building in Klang to demand for citizenship.
The group consisting of children and senior citizens were a small portion of more than 300,000 people from the Indian community in this country who are still denied of their rights to obtain identification cards.
The demonstration was led by PKR Vice-President, N Surendren, Kapar Member of Parliament, S Manikavasagam, and PKR Attorney, Latheefa Koya.
“Why does Najib Abdul Razak’s government not want to give them the blue identification card (IC),” said Surendren.
“All these people were born in this country and spent their lives here, but at the same time, they (government) give ICs to Filipinos?
“For Mahaletchumy’s case, till today there is no documentation, she is a district hockey player, she has a lot of medals but is discriminated and mistreated by the Umno-BN government for no reason,” he said.
After meeting for nearly an hour with NRD officers, the identification card application was given to the group and they dispersed after submitting the form to the NRD.
“We demand for this application to be processed immediately,” he told TV Selangor.
Prior to this, Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein said that the Indian community citizenship claims are politically motivated following the demonstration by the Indian community at the Putrajaya NRD a few months ago.
