SHAH ALAM, 24 Apr: Selangor Government Executive Councillor, Dr Xavier Jayakumar urged Barisan Nasional to stop insults against the Indian community, and to solve their problems of not having identification cards even though they were born in Malaysia.
Dr Xavier slammed the statement by BN candidate for Pasir Gudang, Normala Abdul Samad, asking the Indian community to wait 55 years to be recognised as citizens to wait for the government application process.
“Her statement linking the issue of the Indian community not receiving citizenship to the citizenship problem in Sabah reflects her ignorance.
“It is like saying that Indian ethnic individuals with no citizenship are the same as non-Malaysian citizens.
“The Indian community has been residing in Malaysia since before Independence. The community has birthed its fourth and fifth generation. Their contribution to the development of this country cannot be denied,” said Dr Xavier in a statement.
Previous media reports showed cases of Indian ethnic individuals who have red identification cards (permanent resident status) although they were born in Malaysia.
There are also students who were born in Malaysia but not allowed to take examinations because they do not have the blue IC despite their siblings having the blue IC.
The absence of this citizenship document has caused them to not receive education, employment and government assistance.
When Normala was interviewed by a Malaysiakini reporter, she said that the Malaysian Government cannot easily give out citizenship to Indian ethnics as per the government’s policy on illegal immigrants in Sabah.
According to Xavier, there are about 200,000 ethnically Indians and Malays whose citizenship is not recognised.
“Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak awarded 120 blue identity cards recently. This proves that the BN government is aware of this problem but does not want to speed up the solution,” said Dr Xavier who is also the Seri Andalas State Legislative Assembly candidate.
In September 2012, Pakatan Rakyat leaders in Selangor submitted 800 applications to receive the blue IC from the National Registration Department in Klang.
According to Dr Xavier, the response from the NRD is not effective in solving this problem.
“Pakatan Rakyat has the will to solve this problem within 100 days if given the mandate to administer the Federal Government,” he said.