KUCHING: Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah has called out Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Deputy Minister Chong Chieng Jen for saying that the Sarawak Special Committee on Citizenship had to be discontinued due to unsatisfactory performance.
The Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister argued that the committee was set up because the previous one did not do well.
“It took a long time to wait for the application results. Some even took five years,” Fatimah said yesterday.
She said with the formation of the new committee, applications were given priority and the results would take one or two years.
“There are still applications forwarded before 2016, and (many) have not received any news on their applications.
“While those that had applied within the period of 2016 onwards had known their fate,” she pointed out.
She stressed that when the applications are forwarded, the special committee enabled them to be fast-tracked.
“But the final person in the whole process for approval is the Home Minister. It can pile up if he doesn’t tend to it,” she said.
The special committee was set up in 2016 with approval from the then Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
On July 26, Fatimah said she received a letter dated July 22 from the Home Ministry’s secretary-general Datuk Seri Alwi Ibrahim over the discontinuation of the special committee.
