KUCHING: 42 Letters of Approval for citizenship application were presented to successful applicants yesterday.
Minister for Welfare, Community Well-Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development, Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah presented the approval letters to successful applicants during a Discourse Programme on the Issue of Personal Identification Document in Kuching Division and Presentation of Letters of Approval for Citizenship Application at Penview Hotel here yesterday.
Fatimah disclosed that a Special Committee on Citizenship Status under Article 15A for Sarawak-level was set up on 23 August 2016 and since the setting up of that Special Committee, a total of 297 applications had been tabled from November 2016 until January 2018 (except September and December 2017).
Yesterday morning, the Special Committee held its meeting for the February 2018 series and a total of 25 applications were received and checked.
With the commitment given by the Deputy Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also Home Minister, some 31 per cent or 92 Letters of Approval for Application of Citizenship under Article 15A, of the Federal Constitution had been approved so far.
Fatimah added that 46 Letters of Approval were presented to applicants at the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kuching on 31 November 2017 and four Letters of Approval were presented by Chief Minister, Datuk Patinggi (Dr) Abang Johari Tun Openg during the Ministry of Welfare, Community Well-Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development’s Open Day at the Kuching Waterfront here on February 3.
“Today, 42 Letters of Approval comprising various ethnics, ages and divisions in Sarawak will be presented, but not all will be presented today as some are from other divisions like Miri,” she said.
Citizenship applications under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution are for eligible persons and those aged less than 21 years old.
Fatimah revealed that the National Registration Department (JPN) has taken a lot of initiatives as they approach the people instead of waiting for them to come to JPN be it at the
state-level, divisional-level or district-level.
“In fact, JPN had done a lot of operations – they go out to carry out outreach programme especially to solve the problems of the pribumi who are without personal identifications.
“Since 2015 to 2017, JPN had done 158 outreach programme and their modus operandi is working together with the local elected representatives and also with the local penghulus and community leaders,” she said, adding that from the 158 outreach programme that were carried out, a total of 6,784 applications were received and verifications were made on every application.
