Saturday 3 March 2012

450,000 STATELESS INDIANS IN MALAYSIA?

By : S.JAYATHAS

HUMAN rights are deeply rooted in our political consciousness. 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 aspire 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- 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 450k 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 but in reality it is suspected that it also contains a large number of these stateless Indians.

During a series of focused group discussions held from Aug 24 to 26,2009 at Putrajaya with the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department that was held to review the Ninth Malaysia Plan period and recommendations for the Tenth Malaysia Plan, many expressed tremendous distrust towards the official figures presented particularly on Malaysian Indians.

An outline paper was presented to the Economic Planning Unit in a special meeting chaired by Dato Mat Noor, Deputy Director General on December 24, 2009 highlighting about Citizenship Documentation of the Malaysian Indians. It was stated that there were no proper records of the cases and assistance seem to be on an ad hoc basis only.

It was suggested that the government should undertake a comprehensive survey and document all the Malaysian Indian cases and form an analysis of the root causes for this situation.

It was suggested to enlist the cooperation of the 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 2010-2011, 75% of the cases can be resolved. It is already 2012 now and I’m afraid the stateless Indian numbers is still estimated to number more than 450k.

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

The United Nations Organization declared 1974 as World Population Year and as such within this framework they initiated the preparation of a series of monographs on the past, present and future population trends in 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 Mr R. Chander, Chief Statistician, Census and Demographic Division, Malaysia.

In the preface of this report Mr 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 landmark 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.

The future population projection of Malaysia was calculated for each community for the years between 1970 till 1990. It was done based on several established standard assumptions and giving 4 different projections 4 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 4 different types of projections, the future population projection of the 3 main communities was estimated.

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

(Official Population Census given for 1991: 8,521,906.) Well within the estimated range.

The Chinese community was estimated to number anywhere between 4,512,199-5,487,349.

(Official Population Census given for 1991: 4,623,882) Well within the estimated range.

The Indian community was estimated to number anywhere between 1,491,949-1,660,575.

(Official Population Census given for 1991: 1,316,086) Very much lower than the estimated range.

Meaning the Indian community was around 250k -300k less than the estimated number given by the Chief Statistician in 1975 to CICRED. How is that so when he was well on the mark on the estimates of the Malay and Chinese communities but way off mark on the estimate of the Indian community?

Moreover the fertility levels of the Indian community were far higher than the Chinese community and the external migration of the Chinese community was far higher than the Indian community. Also the estimate given was for the year 1990 but the Official Population Census was a good year after that is 1991.

The answer to this question is very simple. As of 1991 there were at least 250k-300k Malaysian Indians who have been denied obtaining citizenship status in Malaysia for whatever reasons. That was in 1991, today 21 years later, that number must surely at the very least be more than 450k in number.

To believe this one should just go around asking any Malaysian Indian that you come across or meet and ask them whether they know any of their friends or family members who do not have valid citizen documents? Chances are most often than not the answer will be yes. The numbers are that staggering!

At least once a week you can see newspaper articles of an Indian family/individuals here and there who do not have MyKads, children unable to go to primary schools because of no birth certificates 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 about this humanitarian crime on innocent poor people? What have you as an individual done about this?

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