'Sabah NRD listing Christians as Muslims at random'

6:12PM Nov 22, 2012 in http://www.malaysiakini.com.my

 The National Registration Department's (NRD) act of randomly listing Christians in Sabah with "bin" or "binti" in their names as Muslims in their identity cards has come under strong attack.

 The NRD should not be doing this, the Malaysian Consultative Council on Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) said in a statement today

"The NRD should note the historical position that in Sabah, 'bin' and 'binti' do not necessarily mean they are Muslims," MCCBCHST explained.

 MCCBCHST criticised the NRD action as an act of violating the constitutional rights and fundamental liberties of the individuals concerned.

 "The NRD's further decision that it will continue to list such bumiputera Christians as Muslims until they have obtained an order from a syariah court to say that they are not Muslims is a violation of the affected persons constitutional rights and fundamental liberties as enshrined in Articles 11(1) and 12(4) of the federal constitution," the interfaith organisation said.

Case taken to the wrong court

 The council cited the case filed by Sabahan Intim binti Lambaran and her two daughters as an example, stressing that the fact that they were baptised as Christians and never at any time were Muslims should be sufficient for the NRD to list them as Christians in their MyKad.

 "In the present case, Intim binti Lambatan should have filed a writ in the High Court to compel NRD to list them as Christians in their MyKad and not in the syariah court, as the syariah court has no jurisdiction over non-Muslims," the MCCBCHST statement said.

 The case is still pending before the Syariah High Court in Kudat, after the NRD refused to change the status of her religion, even though the Sabah Islamic Affairs Department has written to the court to confirm that Intim's name is not on record in the Islamisation register.

 Another recent case highlighted by MCCBCHST is that of Siti Hasnah Vangarama Abdullah (right), who wants her religion to be changed to Hindu because her parents converted her to Islam in 1983, when she was an infant.

 Despite the Muslim Welfare Organisation of Malaysia (Perkim) and Penang Islamic Religious Council stating that Vangarama was properly converted and that her case must be tried by the syariah court, the High Court has ruled that the matter must be decided by the civil court.

 The Court of Appeal also ruled that there are important constitutional issues to be decided in Vangarama's case and it should therefore come under the jurisdiction of the civil court.

 Based on this ruling by the appellate court, MCCBHST said, the NRD has acted unconstitutionally and in an arbitrary manner in the Sabah instances.

 It called on Sabahans to demand accountability from their government and elected leaders as they are the ones who have allowed this matter to take place by remaining passive.

"MCCBCHST therefore urges the home minister to direct the NRD to rectify and reflect the true religion of the aggrieved parties upon notification, without reference to any third party," the statement added.

Can you expect thieves to arrest themselves?’

 

By Joseph Bingkasan of Free Malaysia Today

| November 21, 2012

A Sabah-based activist has accused Upko of pussyfooting around the illegal immigrant issue.

 

KOTA KINABALU: The author of a book ‘Lest We Forget’ that chronicled the ‘acquisition’ of Sabah by Umno-linked authorities, who re-engineered the demographics of the state, is surprised that local leaders are now downplaying the facts.

Expressing his concern, Dr Chong Eng Leong said he was worried that even a hardline local Barisan Nasional coalition component was backing away from the controversial issue after years of championing it.

Chong is particularly incensed that state assembly representative Donald Mojuntin, the son of the late Peter Mojuntin who is lionised as a defender of Sabah’s rights, was now choosing to limit the fallout from a widely acknowledged illegal act.

He accused Mojuntin, from the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) party, who was formerly a parliamentarian of manipulating for personal reasons a pivotal issue in state and national politics.

Mojuntin has also riled independents with his conciliatory stand on other sensitive Sabah-centric issues notably the date of the formation of Malaysia.

Chong said Mojuntin’s recent statement “let’s not waste time and effort to over-politicise it” when speaking about the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah, was self-serving.

“I am sure Donald (Mojuntin) and Upko know that hundreds of thousands of foreign migrants are in the Sabah electoral rolls – they decide which political party to govern us. Isn’t this problem a political issue, Donald?” asked Chong who is now with PKR and known for his stance on immigration reform.

He said the coalition partners appeared confused over their stand on the issue with Upko president Bernard Dompok once saying that internal upheavals and the strained relationship between state and federal governments had hampered efforts to resolve the problem.

Chong’s book gives a detailed insight of the audacious re-creation of Sabah’s ethnic and religious makeup of the state to tilt the balance of political power in favour of the ruling BN coalition and Umno in particular.

He pointed out that though the Umno-led coalition had been governing Sabah since 1994, repeated calls by Sabah BN members for a royal inquiry since 1996 had not been entertained until this year and even then reluctantly and with limitations.

“Isn’t this political? Donald (Mojuntin) also said the RCI has no power nor manpower to take action on its findings and recommendations as this belongs to relevant bodies like police, immigration and the NRD,” noted Chong.

Immigration, police, NRD involved

Chong said that by stating this, Mojuntin was conveniently ignoring the fact that during in the Likas election petition hearing in 1999, witnesses testified under oath that the meetings, chaired by the late Megat Junid, the deputy home minister at the time, discussed how ICs could be given to foreigners in Sabah and these meetings “involved immigration, NRD and top guns from Bukit Aman”.

“Can you expect the thieves to arrest themselves?

“My research on this issue since the late 90’s is to let us Sabahans (be) aware of this treacherous deed done by the federal government – Dompok knew the modus operandi as he had heard the testimonies from public and briefings by NRD when he was the chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity in 2006.”

He said that Dompok is now urging the public to come forward and help the RCI to set things right but asked since he himself knew the modus operandi, would Dompok come forward to testify.

“I don’t know if I am one of the 48 witnesses identified by the RCI but if not I shall come forward come Jan 14, 2013,” said Chong.

He added that since former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had admitted he did grant citizenship to foreign migrants after decades of silence when challenged,”he must be called if his name is not on the list of 48″.

“The RCI has the power to call anyone to its chamber and even interrogate, if need be,” he emphasised.

Chong said it was hard to believe that the inquiry would lead anywhere as it was the BN government that started this issuance of ICs and citizenship to foreigners for decades through falsified documents and was still doing it now in spite of the RCI in progress.

“Who is going to believe that BN wants to solve this treasonous action?

“Dompok, Donald, and all of you in Upko, if you still vote for BN – the next BN federal government will for sure continue issue MyKad and citizenship to the millions of foreigners already in Sabah now and mind you when the next electoral boundaries are redrawn you shall kiss good-bye to your so-called struggle for your people.

“And forever we Sabahans will become refugees in our own land,” he warned

MP accuses NRD of double standard

By Joseph Bingkasan HERE

| October 10, 2012

          

A 'lopsided' procedure has allowed for hundreds of foreign-borns to be issued birth certs.

 

KOTA KINABALU: An opposition MP has accused the federal government of applying a different set of procedures when dealing with Sabah-born Malaysians and foreign-borns registering for birth certificates in the state.

 

Sepanggar MP, Eric Majimbun said the procedures adopted by Kuala Lumpur marginalised and discriminated against the people of Sabah, particularly those in the rural areas where many children do not have birth certificates.

 

He said when these applicants, with the assistance of local community leaders, finally get their documents, the National Registration Department (NRD) will stamp, in red ink, the words “Late Registration”.

 

“Late Registration” refers to births not registered within the 14 days stipulated under CAP 123 of the Sabah Registration of Births and Deaths Ordinance.

 

And herein begins their difficulties.

 

When it is time for the holders of such documents to apply for identity cards (MyKad), they have to begin with first getting their certificates endorsed by a First Class Magistrate.

 

It’s a procedure under the Sabah Births and Deaths Ordinance Cap. 123. 1953 which states that all “late registrants” must to go through the procedure in court presided by at least a First Class Magistrate.

 

The same court requirements do not seem to apply to foreigners.

 

Majimbun, the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) deputy president, said his recent query on the matter in parliament was not satisfactorily answered by the Home minister.

 

The former chief judge of the Kota Kinabalu Native Court, who had handled many late registration cases, disclosed to FMT here on Tuesday that the written answer given to him was alarming and giving foreigners a `fast track’ scheme to obtain identity cards.

 

‘Lopsided’ procedure

 

According to the minister’s reply, the NRD adopts the position that for the children of foreigners, the information in their parent’s passports is sufficient to determine their status without court verification process that is applied for children of Sabahans, Majimbun said.

 

The opposition MP called the procedure “lopsided” and accused NRD of practicing “double standard”. The procedure was made arbitrarily in order to smooth the way for children of foreigners to easily gain citizenship.

 

“I wonder how many of these late registration certificates holders are foreigners in Sabah because only in Sabah has such (a) law that requires court endorsement of late birth certificates,” he said.

 

Thousands of others circumvent the procedure altogether by registering through the NRD in Putrajaya, he added.

 

Majimbun wants the Barisan Nasional state government to issue a directive to the department that late registrants must go through the proper procedure in accordance to the state law.

 

He said the state government has the power to do this but has allowed the loophole for unknown reasons.

 

“We must have some identity documents to differentiate between local Sabahan Malaysians and the so-called Malaysians in Sabah,” Majimbun added.