Strict conditions keep award of citizenship low
Malaysiakini.com
Nov 21, 2006
Soon Li Tsin

Only 35 percent of applications for Malaysian citizenship has been approved in the past 10 years, according to Deputy Home Affairs Minister Tan Chai Ho.

Tan revealed that only 16,868 from a total of 47,811 applications for citizenship between 1995 to 2005 were successful.

“It’s a low figure because it’s a very serious issue. We cannot just give out citizenship so easily, it’s awarded to those who have satisfied all the requirements,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby.

“What will happen to the country? There are 1.8 million foreign workers here. If there’s any problem and these foreigners cause trouble, people will stop voting for me,” he joked.

Those that have been awarded with a Malaysian citizenship were from Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, India, Singapore, China, Brunei, Hong Kong, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Burma, Australia, Taiwan, USA, Britain, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Asked why Indonesia has the highest number, Tan said the ministry receives the most application from that country.

However, Tan could not provide statistics on the breakdown of the figures and deemed them ‘sensitive’.

Stringent conditions

He then explained that the applicant must acquire a permanent residence status first and reside in Malaysia for 12 consecutive years before applying for citizenship.

He said the current procedure in applying for a Malaysian citizenship takes up to two years where documents and language tests are compulsory.

However, there is no time limit as to how long it’ll take for the ministry to give an answer.

Tan added that the citizenship can be revoked if it can be shown within five years that the person commits an offence amounting to a jail term of 12 months or more or fined up to RM5,000.

As for applicants who have had their application rejected, they have 30 days to appeal to the ministry.

He said these applicants most probably failed to provide adequate documents, not sufficiently qualified and were involved in crimes.    

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