SAMARAHAN: Sarawakian citizenship matters should be determined by the state government and not merely fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government, said the Head of State, Tun Pehin Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.
According to Wan Junaidi, the call for Sarawak to have total power to decide on citizenship is not a mere political issue, but rather it concerns dignity, legal certainty, and justice for the native people of Sarawak.
“I agree that we are in a difficult position, when in fact we should have control over our own citizenship.
“This means that it should be Sarawakians who say yes or no to a citizenship application, not the federal government,” he said during the UNIMAS Statesman Lecture Programme at the DeTAR Putra today.
He stressed that Sarawak has the right to decide on the fate of its own residents in accordance with the spirit of Malaysia’s formation, while the existing situation makes citizenship decisions too dependent on the discretion of federal authorities.
Wan Junaidi also expressed concern over prolonged stateless cases, asserting that solutions would be swifter and more sensitive to local realities if the decision-making power were placed in the hands of the state government.
“We need to reduce our dependence on the discretion of individuals at the federal level. Sarawak must have a decisive voice in matters affecting the lives of its own people,” he stressed.
He further noted that the provisions on citizenship in the Federal Constitution remain loosely defined, leading to numerous controversial cases, at least until 2015, including those involving children who remain stateless despite having clear Sarawakian lineage.
“For example, a child born to a Malaysian mother and a foreign father also faces citizenship problems. I have met many NGOs on this matter, and we sympathise with them.
“There are other cases where both parents are Sarawakians, and a sibling has served in the police force for 39 years.
“How can we deny citizenship to such individuals? Yet it still happens because of the discretionary powers of the Ministry of Home Affairs,” he said.
Wan Junaidi explained that existing laws are not sufficiently well-defined, and therefore require comprehensive amendments, clear policy direction, legislation in the spirit of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), and a reduction in reliance on individual discretion.
