Saifuddin refutes allegations of foreigners getting citizenship

POKOK SENA: Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has dismissed allegations that his ministry is granting Malaysian citizenship on a large scale to foreigners, especially from China.

The Home Minister described the accusations as terrible and without a sense of responsibility.

He said such allegations could affect the ministry’s efforts to resolve the current citizenship application issue.

“This is what we are doing and it is not easy, because the issue of citizenship is highly sensitive, but I completely reject the accusation.

“Give us the space to resolve the issue of the future of children from Malaysian families where the marriage registration process is not done accordingly, and we want to help,” he said.

He said this to reporters after presenting a donation for the purchase of a hearse to Ar-Raudhah Mosque, Sungai Durian here today (Aug 26).

At the event, Saifuddin Nasution also presented the citizenship approval letter to Khatanak Sayyan, 19, who previously had no identity document since birth.

Saifuddin also said there were more than 140,000 citizenship applications received by the ministry. Of the figure, 9,000 had been processed including applications that had been approved.

He said if the data related to the granting of citizenship is distorted and disseminated, it could give a negative perception of the ministry’s efforts to resolve the matter, including many which were caused by delays in marriage registration.

“There were various reasons for this; sometimes parents fail to immediately register a marriage, while in the case of citizenship, the important prerequisite document is the marriage certificate. When there is a lack of that, over time, problems arise for the children,” he said.

He said when the parents try to rectify, such applications could take a long time to be processed.

Previously, the National Registration Department was reported to have denied claims that about 54,000 Chinese nationals are in the process of being granted Malaysian citizenship, supposedly to become DAP voters. – BK