KUCHING: A draft paper on the issue of incorporating the ‘K’ indicator into the Malaysian Identity Cards of children whose biological parents are unknown will be presented to the State Cabinet for policy approval.
In stating this, Women, Childhood and Community Well-being Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said the ministry has completed the draft paper and submitted it to the State Attorney General to be reviewed.
“After that, we can present it in the Cabinet and also obtain a policy that has approval or a policy that will be determined by the Cabinet on how to provide the ‘K’ indicator to children whose parents are unknown,” she said.
She added that this is to ensure the children, once they have the citizenship certificate and become Malaysian citizenship, also will have a ‘K’ status of a Sarawakian.
She said this during the Citizenship Under 15A Thanksgiving Ceremony at Penview Hotel here today.
Fatimah said that the issue of identity documents is one of the 14 social issues focused on by the Ministry through the Sarawak Social Development Council (MPS).
“The issue of identity documents among children in Sarawak includes problems of having no identification documents and statelessness due to various reasons.
“Among the identified causes, through a study titled “A Comprehensive Study on the Causative Factors Leading to Stateless Children in Sarawak” organised by the MPS in 2021, are parents’ marriage not being registered when the child was born to a non-citizen mother, parents not registering the child’s birth, a non-citizen child being left with a citizen, found or abandoned child being placed in children’s welfare institutions owned by JKMS and adoption of a stateless child or a child whose citizenship is undetermined,” she explained.
Last year, Fatimah mentioned that the Sarawak government is identifying methods and approaches to address the issue of incorporating the ‘K’ indicator into the identification cards of residents in the state.
This is in addition to the existing categories, as it still needs to be clearly listed according to legal provisions.
According to the First Schedule and Schedule 1A Sub-regulation 5(2), National Registration Regulations 1990, a native or resident in Sarawak is eligible to receive the “K” identification code in the Malaysian citizen identification card they possess, based on the stipulated conditions.
For children granted citizenship under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution, the assignment of the indicator follows that of the mother or father, subject to the child’s original birth certificate. For adopted children, it is determined based on the indicator of the biological parents of the adopted child.
