New Year, New Hope for Statelessness?
With the recent divisive election over and the ushering in of the new administration, Malaysia has once again “changed” and perhaps this change will be more meaningful and lasting than the last.
Will this new government address the invisible plight that plagued countless lives regardless of your identity?
Victims of injustices that are often unfairly ignored and socially ostracized, even to the point of violence, all because they simply exist in the wrong place at the wrong time.
If you still don’t know who I am talking about, then you are a very lucky and privileged person, blessed by the grace of heaven, because in Malaysia citizenship is a privilege not a right.
The new Minister of Home Affairs, Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution bin Ismail, promised to set up a task force of committees to handle stateless cases on a case-by-case basis, and even proposing an amendment to the constitution, something nobody thought was likely previously.
All these efforts are at least better than the hardliner of the previous Minister of Home Affairs. The million dollar question is will this new pledge to solve statelessness stand out from the rest of the empty promises made previously?
I am not an expert on statelessness so can only provide my humble opinion, I am personally a little frustrated that the new constitutional amendment will only take into account stateless cases born overseas with a Malaysian mother and foreign father to the exclusion of other category of stateless people like those who are born out of wedlock locally.
Why can’t the government use this scarce opportunity for constitutional amendment to provide for all stateless people, or at least solve the majority of the stateless cases which are local. The reason is simple: overseas stateless cases are able to bring attention and awareness to them as a result of their knowledge and skillful utilization of the political apparatus like NGOs and court systems.
If other categories of cases want to escape this limbo, then they must have the courage to prepare for sacrifices, not engage in meaningless slacktivism, even then we are still unable to for example gather the numbers needed for the petition to be meaningful. Of course petition has its place but it needs to be backed up by practical actions or else it will just be empty.
It seems to me that this effort by the new government is a sham, a show for the government to garner the goodwill of the people. I could also be wrong, and this could be a stepping stone into future solutions which are more comprehensive. Either way, one thing is certain, this new government is young, we need more time to judge.
The new government seems tolerant of differing opinions for now. I think the stateless communities should do something to bring awareness to our sufferings. My suggestion is we do a simple hunger strike at a symbolic location with the organization and resources of NGOs to test the waters.