450,000 stateless Indians in Malaysia, fact or fiction?

Today it is generally taken for granted that there are good things that people are entitled to have and bad things that they can expect or hope to avoid. A wide, and ever-widening, range of such entitlements and immunities are supposed to belong to everyone, everywhere and at all times, purely as a consequence of our humanity (i.e. of the dignity and respect that are due to us as human beings).Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. Article 15 of the United Nations ‘Universal Declaration on Human Rights’ gives everybody the right to a nationality: no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her nationality nor denied the right to change nationality. So any act by a nation of depriving a nationality to her inhabitants, that too up to 4th or 5th generation born must be regarded as a perpetual humanitarian crime.

Hindraf has on many occasions stated that there is an estimated 450,000 Malaysian- born Indians that have been rendered stateless as they have been denied citizenship status by the Malaysian government.
According to the Population and Housing Census of Malaysia 2010, there are 2,320,779 non-Malaysian citizens residing in Malaysia. However the general perception that is given is that this huge number consists of nothing but foreign workers like from Indonesia, Bangladesh, etc. In reality it is suspected that this figure of 2.3 million also includes a large number of Malaysian-born but stateless Indians.

During a series of focused group discussions held Aug 24-26, 2009 at Putrajaya with the deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department to review the Ninth Malaysia Plan period and provide recommendations for the Tenth Malaysia Plan, certain participants expressed tremendous distrust towards the official figures presented, particularly those on Malaysian Indians.

An outline paper was presented to the Economic Planning Unit in a special meeting chaired by EPU deputy director-general Mat Noor Nawi on Dec 24, 2009 highlighting citizenship documentation of the Malaysian Indians.

It was stated in the paper that there were no proper records of the cases and assistance seems extended to these Indians to be on an ad hoc basis. It was suggested that the government should undertake a comprehensive survey and document all the Malaysian Indian cases and analyse the root causes for this situation.

It was also suggested to enlist the cooperation of the National Registration Department whereby a focal point is established at the national and state levels, and to also undertake a quarterly review of the situation in order to ensure that between 2010 and 2011, at least 75 percent of the cases could be resolved.

It is already 2012 now and I’m afraid the stateless Indian numbers are still estimated to exceed 450,000.

To prove if this number is indeed fact or to discount it as fiction, one has to trace back to old records and reports of the population census of Malaysia.

Following the data trail
The United Nations had declared 1974 as World Population Year and as such the organization initiated within this framework the preparation of a series of monographs on the past, present and future population trends in various countries.

The Committee for International Co-ordination on National Research (Cicred) was given the responsibility of coordinating the preparation of the monographs. Malaysia submitted its report in December, 1975 which was edited by R. Chander, the chief statistician in the country’s Census and Demographic Division.

In the preface of this report Chander states “the presentation of past, present and future trends in Malaysia in this volume, form a useful synthesis of much of the knowledge accumulated by official censuses. Its value is enhanced by the effort made to demonstrate the relevance of population data for social planning”.

According to Cicred, each collaborating national institutional was commissioned a national monograph on the main dimensions of population growth and composition which serve today as a benchmark for studying demographic change in these countries over the last decades.
In short this report was done in a very comprehensive manner and would have been conducted very diligently. Its figures could represent an unbiased clearer picture of the Malaysian population today.

PROJECTED POPULATION BY COMMUNITY
The future population projection of Malaysia was calculated for each community for the years between 1970 and 1990. It was done based on several established standard assumptions and giving four different projections for each community based on:

Projection A: Fertility constant, 1970-1990.

Projection B: Fertility decline 10%, 1970-1990.

Projection C: Fertility decline 20%, 1970-1990.

Projection D: Fertility decline 30%, 1970-1990.

Based on these four different types of projections, the future population projection of the three main ethnic communities in Malaysia was estimated.

For 1990, the Malay community was estimated to number anywhere between 8,006,849 and 8,985,925.

According to Malaysian’s actual population census carried out in 1991, the Malays numbered 8,521,906. This is well within the estimated range projected by the 1975 reported prepared by Chandler and submitted to Cicred.

The Chinese community was estimated to number anywhere between 4,512,199 and 5,487,349. The Malaysian population census of 1991 gave the figure of 4,623,882. Again well within the estimated range.

The Indian community was estimated to number anywhere between 1,491,949 and 1,660,575. The official census of 1991 counted 1,316,086 Indians. This is very much lower than the estimated range.
Meaning the Indian community was around 250,000-300,000 persons less than the estimated number projected by the chief statistician of Malaysia in 1975. How is that so when he was well on the mark on the estimates of the Malay and Chinese communities?

Chandler was way off mark on the 1990 estimate of the Indian community reported to the United Nations committee. Furthermore the estimate given was for the year 1990 but the official population census carried out a good year after that, in 1991. (Malaysia’s population census is conducted once very 10 years – 1970, 1980 1991, 2000 and 2010.)

Despite the external migration of the Chinese community which was far greater compared with the Indian community, Chandler had still been on target with his projection of the ethnic Chinese population numbers in Malaysia. His projection on the ethnic Indian population figure should by right have been accurate yet the 1991 census numbers fell short notwithstanding the fact that the Indian fertility level was far higher than the Chinese’s.

The answer to this anomaly is very simple.

As of 1991, there were at least 250,000 to 300,000 ethnic Indians who had been denied citizenship status in Malaysia for whatever reasons. That was in 1991. Today after 21 years, that number must surely be more than 450,000 at the very least.

Just try asking any Malaysian Indian that you meet whether they know of anyone among their friends
or relatives who do not possess valid citizenship documents? Chances are, more often than not, their answer will be ‘Yes’. The numbers are that staggering!

At least once a week you will come across articles in the Tamil newspapers about an Indian family or individuals here and there who do not have MyKad and about Indian children who are unable to attend primary school because they have no birth certificate, etc.

Which political party or NGO is truly fighting for these stateless Malaysian Indians?

Which elected representative has brought this matter to parliament or requested for a Royal Commission on this humanitarian crime on innocent, poor people? What have you as an individual done about this?

Written by Dr Paraman Subramaniam

STATELESS- UNDOCUMENTED INDIANS

"Being said ‘No’ to by the country where I live; being said ‘No’ to by the country where I was born; being said ‘No’ to by the country where my parents are from; hearing ‘you do not belong to us’ continuously! ….. Being stateless, you are always surrounded by a sense of worthlessness.” - Lara, formerly stateless

Nationality is a legal bond between a state and an individual, also known as citizenship. A stateless person is a person who is not considered as a National by any states under the operation of its law. A stateless person then, is someone who does not enjoy the legal bond of nationality with any state. In effect, a stateless person is a non-national in every country in the world. The above definition of statelessness has been codified in the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Person (article 1).

According to the Federal Constitution, a child born in the country becomes a citizen by operation of law only if one parents is a citizen or permanently resides in Malaysia at the time of his or her birth or if he or she “is not born a citizen of any country.”

Article 14 of the Federal Constitution, Second Schedule, Part 2, reads:
Citizenship by operation of law of persons born on or after Malaysia Day,(1)(a) “every person born within the Federation of whose parents one at least is at the time of the birth either a citizen or permanently resident in the Federation,“ (e) “every person born within the Federation who is not born a citizen o any country.”

Malaysia has yet to sign the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugee.

However, Malaysia has signed the Convention for the Rights of Child (CRC) and Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), albeit with some reservations.

Statistics indicate that Indians in Malaysia comprise 7.8% or 1.8 million of the 23 million total populations. For several generations, the Indian community resided in rural areas, especially in the rubber and palm oil estates managed by large plantation companies. These plantation companies not only provided them with jobs but also took care of their social and cultural needs i.e. housing, school, temples and health care. In 1970, 47% of the Indians were engaged in agriculture of which 74% were in the plantation sector.

However, due to the rapid industrialisation program undertaken by the government, many of these estates were developed into industrial, commercial and residential areas. Employment in rubber plantations declined from 163,577 in 1979 to 11,788 in January 2006. From 1980 to 2000, it is estimated that more than 300,000 Indians were displaced due to the development. The magnitude of Indian displacement from rural plantation areas to urban areas can be seen from the official reports. In 1970, 323,435 Indian (34%) were in the urban areas and 609,194 (65.3%) in rural areas however by 2000, 1.33 million Indians (79.7) were in urban areas while 341,622 (20.3%) continued to live in the rural areas.

Despite the very large number of people involved in this involuntary stream of migration and with full knowledge of the traumatic impacts of this displacement will have on these people, sadly little or nothing had been done to prepare them for this new environment or to have a holistic transition program in order to equip them with the necessary skills to resettle this community in more sustainable and improved livelihoods. They are now forced to look at alternative ways and means to survive. However, with no proper education or skills, they ended up taking the lower-rung jobs in the cities and having to compete with the migrant workers.

These people are by birth Malaysians, but due to their lack of knowledge and awareness of the importance of such documents they are now in a state of limbo as to their citizenship status is uncertain and are at the mercy of the authorities who could due to bureaucratic reasons deny them their citizenship right. It is sad that in this day and age, there are many people who are not aware of important basic facts, such as how to register a marriage, birth or death. It is estimated that there are around 40,000 Indian children in the state of Selangor alone who do not have their birth certificates . Similarly, based on the number of cases we received at our 10 community centres from 2003 – 2006, we estimated that at least 20,000 Indian women do not have identity documents . These figures could be much higher if their children are taken into account. Therefore, they become ‘stateless’ in their own country and as a result they been denied of protection and care as a citizen of the nation state, and thus vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

One of the other reasons for this issue based on our finding is due to the refusal of some men to own up to their responsibility when the child is born out of wedlock. In other cases the non-registration happened because some parents do not register their child’s birth within the prescribed14-days mandatory period or after that because they fear of being fined or reprimanded by the National Registration officials. As a result their children grew up without proper identification documents. Hence, the consequences are far reaching as children were unable to attend school or get proper medical attention.

An adult without proper documents can't secure a proper job or get married legally. If he or she does get married without their marriage certificate and have children, chances are that their children's birth will not be registered. As a result the children are neglected within an environment that is not suitable for living or is less favourable than their peers. As a result they often lack the opportunities for development in accordance with their age; such as the opportunity to receive formal education, the opportunity to be safeguarded by the national health care system, the opportunity to work in safe and just positions (leading to labour exploitation), and the opportunity to legally travel out of their residential area. These children often become targets and fall victim to criminal gangs or enforcement officers such as the police and RELA; they become trapped in a vicious cycle.

Similarly, because they are illiterate or lack education, they are unable to converse fluently in Bahasa Malaysia. As a result, they are unable to communicate effectively with government officials and face difficulty in understanding their bureaucratic procedures and requirements. Therefore, they are often subject to rude treatment by these officials which causes them to be demoralised and give up their efforts to complete their application. This has led to serious problems for these poor Indians and the cycle of “quasi statelessness” repeats itself after their children grow up and start families.

DHRRA Malaysia has taken effort to identify the stateless or undocumented Indians in Malaysia. Among the efforts taken are, DHRRA Malaysia has conducted many workshops in order to train the community leader, as they are much closer to the community and they will be able to identify the stateless people. DHRRA Malaysia has been very vocal in highlighting this issue in every available avenue. DHRRA Malaysia was also invited to contribute towards 10th Malaysia Plan by the Economic Planning Unit, Prime Ministers Department. During these sessions DHRRA Malaysia highlighted on the issues of the stateless people, how these stateless people will benefit or will be taken into account in 10th Malaysia Plan. DHRRA Malaysia has been involved in this task since 2003. DHRRA Malaysia and other NGOs are trying to minimise the problem by raising awareness among the community of the importance of applying for birth certificates early and assisting these undocumented Indians to apply for their legal documents. DHRRA Malaysia has also established good rapport with the National Registration Department (NRD) wherein NRD has been very cooperative in resolving the undocumented issues. The 2011 data at DHRRA Malaysia, shows 2099 number of cases have been collected since Jan to 15 Jul 2011.

According to DHRRA Malaysia’s experience, among the reason for not having legal documents are:
1.Lack knowledge on the importance of legal documents
2.Ignorance
3.Administrative or procedural problems
4.Financial problem
5.Inter – religion marriage
6.Marriage to foreign spouse (no legal marriage)
7.No proof of birth
8.Illegal Adoption
9.Child abandoned without proper documents
10.Child born out of wedlock


Case Study:

Vasudevan Subramaniam
Vasudevan Subramaniam was legally adopted by a couple at the age of 1 year from the government welfare home in Johor Bharu. He did not have any legal documents. His adopted parents managed to get his birth certificate but at the age of 12 when the parents took him to get his identity card, Vasudevan was given a red identity card which is known as “Permanent Residence”. Now Vasudevan Subramaniam is 19 years. Till date he is still unable to get his citizenship. His adopted parents have made several applications but all were rejected. Due to this he is also unable to apply for an International Passport to travel to overseas with his adopted parents.
Being born in Malaysia, having lived in a government welfare home, adopted by Malaysian parents and studied in a national school but being denied of nationality. Vasudevan Subramaniam has been classified as Stateless.

Muniammah & Family
Madam Muniammah is 60 years old. She was born in an estate in Kuala Kubu Bharu. She does not know where her siblings are, as she was married off at the age of 11. Her husband was an alcoholic and did not care for the family. Muniammah has 4 daughters. The husband left when the children were still young. Muniammah tried to register the birth of her children but could not do as she herself did not have any legal documents. Now her daughters are of the age between 30 – 36 years. The worst part, Muniammah daughter’s has children of their own. In this family alone we have 3 generations of stateless people.

Norhashima bt Abdullah
Norhashima was sent to government welfare home with a court order when she was a few months old. She grew up in the government welfare home, which till today has her records. She went to a national school. The welfare home did apply for her birth certificate and her parents details are not in the birth certificate due to that, Norhashima is also classified as stateless. Norhashima is 27 years now, the only identity card that she has now is a green identity card, which recognises her as temporary resident in the country where she was born and grew. This identity card has an expiry date as well.

Tan Ming Siang & Tan Ming Haw
Tan Ming Siang and Tan Ming Haw are bothers. They both were born in Malaysia. They were born to a Thai mother and Malaysian father. Tan Ming Haw has a birth certificate but in his birth certificate it is stated as ‘Bukan Warganegara’. Tan Ming Siang’s application is still in process. Both their parents were not legally married. Since they are not legally married, both the children are not recognised as citizens of this country. To make situation worse, both of them were stopped from attending school as they are stateless.

These are some of the sample cases which are in limbo; it is doubtful if these people will be recognized as citizens of this country. According to the current policy these people will not be recognized as the citizen of the country.

Governments Effort In Eradicating Statelessness among the Indian Community

•The government has taken some effort by setting up the Special Implementation Taskforce on Indian Community (SITF) under the Prime Ministers Department. SITF initiated MyDaftar campaign from 19 Feb – 4 Mac 2011. SITF manage to collect 14, 882 cases.
•The National Registration Department has also been very cooperative in handling the stateless issues.
•The Prime Ministers Department has also provided allocation to various NGO’s to identify and assist in eradicating this issue.
•The government has also launched many media campaign.


All the above effort is appreciated but there is nothing much done on policy matters. Only with policy amendment can the issue of stateless Malaysians can resolved.


SUHAKAM’s Stance on the Stateless People

SUHAKAM has issued many statements on various stateless groups. However there has not been much effort taken in eradicating the issue of statelessness.

SUHAKAM in its capacity should conduct a study with the help of NGO’s working on these stateless people and provide policy recommendations to the government.

Accede to and implement the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

Lobby to the government on the basis of Child Rights Convention, that every child should have access to education.

The state of the stateless in Malaysia

Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of United Nations , Article 15 states that everyone has the right to a nationality and no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Malaysia being a member of the UN should be strictly adhering to this noble declaration however in reality Malaysia has an alarmingly growing in number of stateless people that have been denied their citizenship which is their legitimate birth right as a human being.

Unfortunately in Malaysia, the ruling elite within the UMNO dominant government have been systematically using 'citizenship' as one of their ways of means to continue their autocratic rule over this country.

It has always been a 'numbers' game. There have been allegations that it appears to be a hidden tacit UMNO government policy to reduce the number of non Muslim voters and at the same time increase Muslim voters in critical areas that UMNO's dominance is seen to be weak. In Sabah particularly, several Kadazan, Dusun, Murut (KDM) leaders have alleged that 'project M' was implemented to ensure Filipino Muslims and Pakistanis were granted citizenship's in large numbers to dilute the KDM majority of Sabah. Dr Chong Eng Leong in his book 'Lest We Forget' estimates that around 600k citizenship's were issued in 1986 to Filipino and Indonesian Muslims. In west Malaysia , Indonesians are seen to enjoy the privilege of obtaining citizenship with relative ease as compared to many other races who still hold red Identity Cards even though being born in Malaysia before independence.

The new 'soft Muslim vote bank' who forever will be dependent on UMNO, provides the ruling elite within the BN government a perfect counterbalance against not only the non Muslims but also against the growing number of Muslims who have become more politically enlightened of the gross abuses and corruption that has become so widespread under the BN.

Another methodology employed by UMNO is the act of omission and commission to deny citizenship's to the softest target within the Malaysian community, the Malaysian Indians, some of whom are into their 6th generation born on this land. .

The Human Rights Party of Malaysia (HRP) estimates that there are currently 450k Indians in Malaysia that do not possess Malaysian citizenship. Though this number appears to raise some eyebrows in disbelief amongst some, the following facts may prove that this indeed could be shockingly true.

In 1976 the MIC formed a bureau to register Indians in this country who had issues concerning citizenship. Within a mere 5 years or so there were more than 40k Indians who registered themselves as being stateless.The numbers were staggering and MIC did nothing more than just getting them registered as applicants. Alarm bells rang and eventually in 1981 MIC was ordered to close down that bureau and along with it the more than 40k Indian stateless applicants were swept under the carpet. From whom the orders came from to close down that bureau is anyones guess but coincidentally it was about the time that Dr Mahathir came into power. In 1981 the numbers at the very least stood at more than 40k stateless Indians, today that figure definitely would have risen significantly. Malaysia's population stood at 13.43 million in 1981 , today the population is around 29 million. Just on that account only one could estimate today that there may be more than 100k stateless Indians, however it must be noted that MIC conducted the registrations during those years in an extremely quiet manner and as such there may have been many thousands more who would not have known about it back then to have come forward to register.

On January 21 2008, the then Selangor Chief Minister Khir Toyo had advised the Home Ministry to set up a body to look into the plight to handle 40k Indian children in the state of Selangor who did not have birth certificates. Subsequently no one ever heard anything about it ever again. If there were 40k stateless Indian children just in Selangor, what about their parents and grandparents as well as elder siblings that are above 18 years of age ? This could possibly mean, just in the state of Selangor there may be more than 100k stateless Indians today.

On 13/08/2010, HRP met with the top Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN) brass in Putrajaya. They informed the officers that the HRP currently estimates the stateless Indians to number 450k nationwide. HRP's detailed investigative conclusion that this huge problem is due to multifactorial reasons mainly:


1) Tacit UMNO government policy of ignoring this problem,

2) Lack of political will to resolve these issues both from BN as well as PR elected representatives,

3) Application processes too complicated for the illiterate and semi literate Indian poor,

4) Racial religious bias,

5) Insensitive and hostile over the counters JPN staff,

6) Sheer ignorance of these officers of the magnitude of the problem.

So it is not as if the UMNO government is totally ignorant of the gravity of the problem as well as the causes of it.

On 23/01/2011, the Deputy Secretary General of Registration and Immigration Datuk Raja Azhar Raja Abdul Manap was quoted to have said "We do not know how many of these people are without the documents ." (Source Staronline)

On 19/02/2011, the Special Implementation Task Force (SITF) on the Indian community in collaboration with the Home Ministry of the government established a campaign to register, process and eventually provide fast tract birth certificates and MyKads to stateless Indians. That was the officially stated purpose but given what has transpired since, it looks like it is just another 'wayang kulit'. The campaign was run for only 8 days in 9 states through the 61 JPN branches. Even though in reality the MyDaftar team only registered each application and gave them a reference number but the propaganda that went about nationwide through the mainstream medias gave it an impression that citizenship's and birth certificates were resolved for as many numbers as they shouted about who turned up in response. Interestingly within a mere 52 hours of work, there were in total 14,882 applicants. This would roughly translate to 5 applications were made to register every 1 minute or rather one stateless Indian registering every 12 seconds. It was also stated that another 10k forms were taken for their friends or relatives but had not returned the forms. The MyDaftar team which is under the Special Implementation Task Force (SITF) with Dato Seri Najib as the chairman of cabinet committee, then chose to extend the campaign another mere 5 days even though the numbers that had come up to register were so high. The extension of 5 days however was in a very quiet manner , without much media fanfare probably fearing it may attract further larger numbers to turn up.

19/02/2011, PPP WP chairman Datuk A. Chandrakumaran reported that 8 days were not sufficient and his party received 'never ending visits' of stateless Indians. (Source Sinarharian)

20/02/2011, Johor MIC state chairman Datuk K.S Balakrishnan said that there are more than 5k Indians in Johor that still do not have proper identification documents.(Source Star)

As all methodologies used in national population statistics data in this country are not transparent and is a closely guarded state secret, protected under various draconian 'secret acts' by the government, one only can use the various data available and read in between the lines to look for the correct information that reflects the true gross critical ground reality that we see.

To look for bees one has to trace the trail where the honey is.

Considering that stateless people are deprived of the ultimate social security net which is citizenship and are hence trapped as they are excluded in virtually every sector ie health, education, employment, security and housing, it should come as no surprise that Indians have the lowest development index in the country.

They have the lowest life expectancy rate , 67.3 years compared to the national average of 71.2. Indians have the 2nd highest infant mortality rate, highest school drop out rates ie less than 5% of Indians reach tertiary level of education. They have highest incidence of alcoholism, highest incidence of drug addiction as well as highest number of prisoners in proportion to the population. Indians are involved in 45% of the country's crime and they record the highest percentage of deaths whilst under police custody > 95%. Indians constitute the highest rate of suicides of any Malaysian community 21.1 suicides per 100,000 population as compared to Malays 2.6 suicides per 100,000 population and Chinese 8.6 suicides per 100,000 population. More than 60% of the inmates at the Simpang Renggam Detention Centre are Indians. Around 40% of male Indian youth are in the grips of crime. 14% of juvenile delinquents in this country consists of Indians. 41% of the beggars in Malaysia are Indians and more than 30% of Indians do not own a home. Only a minuscle 1.5% of the nations corporate wealth of the country are in the hands of Indians and if Tan Sri Ananthakrishnan and Datuk Tony Fernandez wealth is taken out of this, it may even be less than half of that value.

Beneath all these depressing statistic is probably where lies hidden the estimated 450k stateless Indians in this country.

The stateless in this country are generally trapped in poverty. They feel marginalized and ostracised in virtually every sector in this country : hospitals, schools,institutions,enforcement agencies, government and corporate. To survive they need to seek a defence mechanism to overcome their woes and challenges. They either have to beg or to turn to crime as there is no other alternative in a government that is devoid of caring and sharing.

Mr Uthayakumar of HRP estimates that the majority of the 450k stateless Indians in this country lie within the states of Kedah,Penang,Perak,Selangor,KL, Negeri Sembilan and Johor. Coincidentally these states also represent the highest distribution of thug gangs that mainly consists of Indians.

HRP came out with several proposals to JPN to address the statelessness problem among the Indians :

1) The government should set up a special transparent unit within JPN. This unit should be adequately resourced all the way from field workers to department director. Their charter will be to :-

a) Identify all Indian Malaysians who do not have birth certificate, MyKads or have problems with their citizenship status.

b) Create a database of them and establish appropriate programs to clear them one by one by 31/12/2011.

c) Simplify the procedure for applying for delayed birth certificates and MyKads. Make the process 'poor friendly'. Do not require the applicants to fill out so many forms and to provide so much of documentary evidence which most often are redundant.

Do not require them to come to the JPN offices so many times and sending them most often on a wild goose chase. Do not reject their applications because they did not cross the 't's or dot the 'i's. Treat them with more respect and support them throughout the process.

d) Authorize senior and respected members of the community to certify births and parentage where a hospital is unable to do it.

2) Religion, race and marriage should not be made non constitutional barriers to birth registration.

3) Parents must be empowered to decide the religion of their children on the basis of equality of all religions.

4) The JPN or other religious organizations should not impose the Syariah law on non Muslims. Mixed marriages are one of the major reasons for the stateless Indian problem.

5) Empower this special unit to address this problem without interferance from any religious bodies.

6) The JPN should discard procedures that were set up a long time ago using outdated technology like photographs to establish resemblances with newer mehods like DNA profiling where necessary.

7) All that is required is for the hospital where the child is born to be made responsible for the registration of the births. The birth is registered and a birth certificate should be issued.

8) In the case of births at home or for abandoned children, a similar simple enough alternative procedure needs to be established.

9) The government should extend the e-Govt system to cover this crucial need and set up a mechanism to monitor and report on this effort in the JPN website.

10) This special unit in the JPN must be authorized to work with the Health Ministry, the Education Ministry, the Human Resource Ministry etc to resolve any associated problems pertaining to those ministeries.

So why should one care for these stateless people ?

First and foremost there shouldn't be a reason. Just based on empathy and on compassionate grounds, each one of us must take on this responsibility to put pressure on all our political leaders to make serious efforts on solving this ever growing number of stateless people in this country. Politicians that just give mere lip service and ignore this issue need to be exposed and censured.

Secondly as we notice crime is on an ascending trend in this country and it could in some way be simbiotically linked to the rise in the number of stateless people in Malaysia. It will be pointless to build higher fortified walls around our house and put up expensive elaborate security systems as well as live in gated, guarded homes but continue to choose to remain blind to the fundamental root causes of this problem. If left not addressed, Mother Nature has her own unique way of 'correcting' these imbalances.


The problem of exclusion is one universally acknowledged to be the source of all various social ills of any given society. The statelessness of the Indian poor, reduces Indian participation in Malaysian democracy and the shortsighted and self serving view of UMNO has far reaching consequences. If you were to connect the dots, you will see that the thinking that generates this shortsighted position on statelessness is what is perenially keeping us in a state of mediocrity among the community of nations. Those of you who have been fortunate enough to step out of the country and see what is happening around the world will recoqnize the true folly of this kind of myopic policy of the Malaysian elite.

Due to our selfish self centred lifestyles we could get 'bitten' in the process for not exercising our civic duty in helping these poor and vulnerable stateless people.

Albert Einstein once said that the world is a dangerous place not because of people who do evil but because good people who just look on and do nothing about it.

We are run by diversity. We become divided because we think that we are many . This feeling of diversity , the psychology of plurality, the sentiments of multiplicity lead to conflict, confusion, and chaos; whereas the feeling of unity and harmony, the sentiment of synthesis and the experience of oneness is unity.

Let us all be united in bringing the state of the stateless in Malaysia to its valid and justified attention.






Dr Paraman VS