Fifteen year old Citra Dorai was born in a prison in Alor Setar and her knowledge about the circumstances surrounding her birth is rather vague.She has been illiterate all her life as she does not have a birth certificate or an identity card which makes it impossible for her to register for any school.
Her mother died recently and her father has left her and two other siblings in the care of an aunt, and Citra is totally uncertain of her future.
"I want to be like everyone else, to go to school, and to have something to do in the future," she said, teary-eyed.
Citra, is a stateless person.
Citra is also part of the 150,000 Malaysians who were born and bred in the country but who continues to suffer as stateless persons for various reasons ranging from not having parents' with citizenship to refusal to follow suit when a spouse or parent converts to Islam.
SOURCE: Malaysiakini: Stateless in Malaysia
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5 comments:
It is common law that new born in any country will automatically gain citizenship. This apply to Malaysia too.
For Citra case, it is truly "Bolehland", it is ultimate bullshit to say "her birth is rather vague". It is authority obligation to register ANY new born, they are under NO CIRCUMSTANCES refuse to issue birth certificate.
It is against the law when authority refuse to register them. However, since nobody punished government officer that neglect their work, this problem will continue in the near future. And this is just another sign of dysfunction government.
Doc, the parent citizenship doesn't matters! somebody are fooling around with the law in their hand.
Moot,
I think the birth must be registered at the time of birth and the parent must be a Malaysian citizen.
Doc,
True, "the birth must be registered at the time of birth ".
Even the parent are non-citizen, Malaysia officer MUST register the birth and issue birth certificate. It clearly show that , a lots of people are not doing their job. It is a simple job to issue the birth certificate, although it does not automatically grant citizenship.
Or perhaps it show that Malaysia prefer to stay in the 3rd world rank to practice all this "define the law as they liking" thingy.
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On the other hand, country like USA practice "touch down new born". Uncle Sam doesn't care whether the parent are not citizen, nor he care about "double citizenship". Any children that gave birth in USA will automatically grant citizenship.
There is "birth tourism" towards 1st world country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_tourism
It is stupid to blame the authorities if the guardians failed to fulfill their responsibilities. If Amerika is so good, why not migrate there. I hate people who thinks the grass is always greener the other side.
Being born in UK, does not necesarily one is a British citizen. Automatic citizenship has been revoked even by the UK.
Registration of a bith starts of by reporting the birth by the guardian within few days of birth. Not years later.
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