Citizenship award a complicated process, each case must be studied separately

KUALA LUMPUR: Applications for citizenship must be carefully studied and based on a case-to-case basis.
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said the ministry must look at each case separately, subject to the conditions under Part III of the Federal Constitution.
He said this was why it was difficult for the ministry and the National Registration Department to draw up comprehensive and uniform guidelines for the whole country for the process of awarding citizenship.
"In Sabah and Sarawak, there is the ordinance on births as well as other procedures which must be observed in order to get citizenship," he said when winding-up the debate on the motion of thanks for the Royal address for the ministry at the Dewan Rakyat sitting today.
Nur Jazlan was replying to allegations made concerning the problem of citizenship status, especially for the two states which was raised by several opposition Members of Parliament, including Wong Sze Phin (DAP-Kota Kinabalu) and Alice Lau Kiong Yieng (DAP-Lanang).
He said the ministry had taken various pro-active steps to resolve the issue of citizenship and identity cards, including collaborating with the Sarawak government through a committee chaired by the Sarawak Minister of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development.
"With this collaboration, all applications made in Sarawak will be considered by this committee first before it is forwarded for approval by the Home Minister," he added. — Bernama