RESPECT THE RIGHTS OF CITIZEN FIRST SAY NGO PRESIDENT

WHILE THE STATELESS CHILDREN IN SABAH ARE POTENTIAL DANGERS..
4 April 2019

interviewed by RTM tv1

from Left, Lam Yu Koh (Dep President), Lily Chong (AJK) , Heng ( IC victim ), President Lee and Chen Hing Heong (AJK) displaying all the relevant documents

PENAMPANG.  The National Registration Department (JPN) must respect the rights of their own citizen first, said Lee Pun Yee, President of Sabah People's Right Association who is representing a fisherman Heng Book Chai who has been applying for his IC since 1995. 

According to Lee, the JPN Sabah has already interviewed Heng and taken all documentations including his thumbprints and have also telephoned an officer at JPN Putrajaya (name given) who told him the application can be made in any JPN office. However Lee and his committee members have gone three times to JPN Sabah Hq Kota Kinabalu and met a lady officer (name given) and was shown on computer screen that JPN data says this fisherman wanted to leave Malaysia and surrender his citizenship. However they were not allowed to have a printout or even to photograph the screen.

Currently Heng's only identification document is a "Resit Pengenalan Sementara" No 8724904 issued on 1 sept 2013 and was told to check every 6 months when the receipt was revalidated for another 6 months. After the fourth time the receipt is already expired. He had used the same document to travel to Miri as a fisherman in fishing boats and had even approached Sarawak politicians and even asked Party MCA for help, all to no avail.

Hence President Lee is now asking the present government, if they cannot take care of the rights of its own citizens, just who are they going to  ask for help now and wonder if the officers at JPN Putrajaya are really doing their job. Amazingly Mr Heng does have a valid driving licence with IC No. 500723-10-5801 valid from 11 Feb 2016 to 23 July 2021 but he is unable to vote without an IC and is currently staying in Kota Kinabalu surviving as a fishmonger.

When asked for details of his background, Mr Heng said he was born at Pulau Ketam Selangor on 23 July 1950 where both his parents were also red IC holders and grew up as a fisherman in the island. While working in Sabah in 1995 he met a factory manager called Tony from Pulau Penang looking for workers. So with a help of a friend he found 10 workers all with IC and Tony himself took all these workers to Penang. A few weeks later Tony called him to come to Penang to bring back the workers as all were found with fake IC. He said he did not know anything being lowly educated and found himself being arrested at the airport upon arrival. He was jailed at the police station, brought to court where the immigration officials just told him to plead guilty and he will be sent back to Sabah because he cannot afford a lawyer to defend himself.  Instead he said he was jailed 6 months and fined two thousand ringgit, the fade receipt he still keeps in his files. Upon being released after 4 months jail, Heng said all his documents were returned except his red IC and was given a 30 days special pass for 30 days entry permit for immigration office KK Sabah and told to apply for new IC there.  That was when his IC problem then started until today.

During the interview Heng still viewed the Immigration as having cheated him of his life, considering if he is capable of producing fake IC he would be rich and do not have to travel to Penang. 

He also stressed he has never gone out of Malaysia so he is asking which of the those officers have entered the fake data about him. On his behalf President Lee has been seeking an appointment to see Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal hoping for an introduction to see the Home Minister himself.

Regarding his association, Lee said the People's Right Association was registered in 2013 with himself as president with another 7 people as founding committee members. It started because he was always asked to help people with problems and one day a businessman suggested he started the association promising to donate some money as Patron. The donation was only one thousand and from then on he said all the expenses were borne by himself and his 2000 members all over the state.

Until now the issues they had looked into included roads, drains, birth certificate, IC and shopkeepers problems where 90% were solved. There was an odd complaint that a housing area was invaded by stray domesticated pigs let loosed from a nearby village, he said.

The current issues are the stateless children born out of wedlock by locals with foreign women and we have 800 pending cases he said. "I also scold the local men who only knows how to enjoy night time exercises but they are not responsible for the products," he said.

He is aware under the Article 15(A) of the Constitution, the federal government has the right to give permanent residence to these people however the standard reply to the application is "Not Approved,  but can re-apply". He said the government never give any reasons or inform if any documents were insufficient, just those words. These stateless children are huge problems for us because they cannot go to school, cannot go to hospital unless pay expensive cost, cannot get a job so in the end they are potential criminals of our country, he said.

Lee is unsure if Malaysia is a signatory of the United Nations Chapter of Human Rights however the recent opposition to the international convention on ICERD and the Rome Statute seemed to show this country has no regard of human rights, he opined.