The Education Ministry will soon issue a circular to all schools nationwide, advising them to accept all ‘stateless’ children, even if they have no birth certificate, so long as the father is a Malaysian citizen.

However, the advice will come with a caveat: the children must have already applied, through the Malaysian parent, to the National Registration Department (NRD) for a birth certificate, citizenship or MyKad.

wee ka siong mca pc 300708 03 “A birth registration certificate will be issued to the child which will state that the child is not a citizen...,” deputy minister Wee Ka Siong said while on an official visit to Kota Kinabalu over the weekend.

“This will not be a problem as long as the father is a Malaysian citizen. The status of the mother is not important (whatever country) she is (originally) from...”

However, Wee could not categorically confirm, despite persistent questioning by the media, whether children of non-citizen fathers and Malaysian mothers will be accepted into government schools.

He merely said: “Malaysia definitely supports the Unesco policy of ‘education for all’.

“The draft circular on the new policy has been completed and (the ministry) is in the process of finalising it...views raised by Sabah MPs and NGOs have been taken into consideration.”

Wee gave an assurance that the federal government shares the concerns of Sabahans that illegal immigrants might use the Education Ministry’s ‘new policy’ as a “loophole to stay indefinitely in the country”.

“For Sabah, this does not mean that we will accept into school whoever we find. We (too) fear (what) the people of Sabah are afraid of - that is, illegal immigrants,” he said.

“This (decision) is only meant for those already married but maybe (their marriage) had yet to be registered, or because of late (birth) registration and so on. This should not be an excuse not to accept their children into school.”

Wee disclosed that his ministry had sent a research team to Semporna in east Sabah to study issues related to implementation of the policy, conduct random sampling and obtain estimates of the number of children with unclear citizenship status. The report is still under preparation.

hishammuddin post cabinet pc 210308 4 Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein had stirred the hornet’s nest with his statement in Tawau about a week ago that even students without Malaysian birth certificates can enroll in a government school as long as one parent is a citizen.

Hishammuddin described as “unfair” the policy practised by several schools in Tawau not to accept students into Form One this year unless they have Malaysian personal documents.

“As the education minister, I wish to state that it is not a policy I approve of. If it really exists, we will change it today itself,” he said while visiting SK Balung in Tawau.

“Such a policy, if it is a policy, is not fair considering that the process in getting documents from the NRD takes time. The delay on the part of departments and ministries should not be a reason for (children) not to be accepted into school.”

He viewed “the existing policy” as a hindrance to these children in continuing their schooling and to benefit from education.

NRD sources said the department is working on a new mechanism in Putrajaya to automatically register all births, to overcome the problem of parents neglecting to do so. The Health Ministry is expected to work closely with the NRD on this.

Contradictions in statement

However, the Education Ministry statements have created confusion and additional anxiety over the likely impact on citizenship status, should ‘stateless’ children be issued with a birth certificate.

eric majimbun Sepanggar MP Eric Majimbun pointed out that children with ‘undetermined status’ are illegal immigrants or stateless.

PKR national vice-president Jeffrey Gimpoi Kitingan said the education minister should stop making contradictory statements.

Anti-immigration activist and medical practitioner Dr Chong Eng Leong, who recently joined PKR, queried why “the Malaysian parent has not applied for a birth certificate within the specified 40 days or through a late registration of birth”.

sabah migrants 181204 He claimed there are “thousands of children” in Sabah born to couples where one parent is a Malaysian, but that they have not been granted citizenship by operation of law despite holding a birth certificate.

“If a birth certificate states that at least one parent is a Malaysian citizen, that child is a Malaysian citizen by operation of law according to our constitution. The NRD cannot say that the citizenship status of the child is undetermined,” said Chong.

Luyang state assemblyperson Melanie Chia expressed worry that Hishammuddin’s remarks may create a loophole that could be abused.

“It will be like opening the floodgates, especially in view of the large number of illegal immigrants in the state,” said Chia, who heads the women’s wing of the Sabah People’s Progressive Party (Sapp).

She added that Hishammuddin’s statement has clearly contradicted the requirement under the Education Act 1996 for children who are non-citizens to first apply for an ‘education licence’ to be accepted in schools.