AMONG the many issues facing Malaysia’s new government is that of the increasingly long wait for citizenship, particularly in cases requiring the Home Affairs minister’s approval. The case of Pua Ah Tee (“Dream come true, finally”, The Star, May 4; online at bit.ly/star_longwait) who received his citizenship after a 20-year wait is a typical example. Many citizenship applicants have drawn my attention to their dilemma. If the large number of these stateless people don’t have birth certificates (through no fault of theirs) there are other ways to determine their eligibility for citizenship. The injustice of denying them citizenship these many years is accentuated by the fact that, as it is widely known, many foreigners have been granted fast-tracked citizenship without hassle.
