COMMENT | Let there be more compassion for undocumented children
COMMENT | This is about the widely reported case of Rohana Abdullah, a 22-year-old stateless woman. As the story goes, she was adopted by a Malaysian Chinese lady when she was abandoned at birth by her biological mother, reportedly an Indonesian.
This story has touched the hearts of countless caring netizens including the home minister. Rohana’s story was first reported by Metro on Jan 14.
Rohana grew up under the care of her foster mother Chee Hoi Lan who was at the time a teacher at a kindergarten. Despite being Chinese and a non-Muslim, the single lady ensured that Rohana remained a Muslim.
To all those racist politicians and hate preachers, please let this story of Rohana and Chee be an eye-opener...
COMMENT | This is about the widely reported case of Rohana Abdullah, a 22-year-old stateless woman. As the story goes, she was adopted by a Malaysian Chinese lady when she was abandoned at birth by her biological mother, reportedly an Indonesian.
This story has touched the hearts of countless caring netizens including the home minister. Rohana’s story was first reported by Metro on Jan 14.
Rohana grew up under the care of her foster mother Chee Hoi Lan who was at the time a teacher at a kindergarten. Despite being Chinese and a non-Muslim, the single lady ensured that Rohana remained a Muslim.
To all those racist politicians and hate preachers, please let this story of Rohana and Chee be an eye-opener.
Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan (Patriot) believes that this may not be the only case of abandoned children being raised by foster parents and growing up stateless due to the difficulties in obtaining official documents to claim his or her identity as a citizen of Malaysia.
We believe there are numerous cases where foster parents will have to wait for many uncertain years for the child to successfully receive a National Identity Registration Card from the National Registration Department (NRD).
The requirement includes going through the official adoption process at the Welfare Services Department and to obtain a court order for the legal adoption of the child.
However, upon failing at the end of this long, time consuming and tedious process, the child will remain stateless.
It is common knowledge that obtaining an IC for a stateless child is an agonising wait for most foster parents that sometimes ends in total rejection by the NRD.
Whatever the reasons may be for the rejection, we need to take cognisance of the principles and right to living.
An undocumented child who is finally denied an IC is made to suffer the consequences of the biological parents who abandoned the child or gave it away for adoption, largely and often due to economic and desperate circumstances.
Keeping children stateless is cruel
An undocumented child was born innocent and the compassionate disposition of the adopting family or parents offer new hope for the child. By not giving legal status or citizenship to such a child is agony beyond description.
If the child is proven to have been born in the country substantiated with supporting official documents, making the child stateless is unimagined cruelty.
To reject and deny any undocumented child of their right to live a normal life and let the child suffer statelessness as they grow up is the worst human rights violation that one can inflict upon fellow humans.
Children made to suffer under a process that cannot go beyond compassion and rigid rules become victims of isolation and uncertainty. And this is most sinful as all religions will tell you.
It is indeed senseless and thoughtless to deem an adopted child who is born innocent as stateless.
Why crucify a guiltless child because of the actions of their biological parents? Every child born into this world deserves the right to live and lead a normal life.
When the biological parents have forsaken or abandoned their newborn, leaving the child in the care and love of the foster parents, not granting citizenship to the child and keeping them stateless is a fundamental deprivation to living a normal life with equal rights.
Patriot urges the relevant authorities to fully investigate issues relating to undocumented and stateless children and formulate policies that could resolve, accommodate and show compassion to the plight of the undocumented children.
This is so that these children too can claim their God-given right to live a normal life.
Perhaps it is time to reset the rules and processes and raise them to commensurate with this fast-developing nation of ours.
In a country where Islam is the official religion, the authorities must set the standard to reflect the tenets of the religion that propagates compassion.
MOHD ARSHAD RAJI is the president of Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
