BAU: The Home Ministry has been urged to reconsider the dissolution of the Sarawak Special Committee on Citizenship under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution.
Utilities Minister Datuk Seri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom spoke on this to reporters after officiating at Fairy Cave Festival 2019 here last Saturday.
“The ministry needs to reconsider this because it will adversely affect Sarawak,” he said.
In 2016 a Sarawak delegation paid a courtesy call on the then Home Minister and the state was allowed to set up the committee on citizenship.
This has improved the processing time because citizenship applications from Sarawak were no longer lumped together with those from the rest of Malaysia.
So far the special committee had received over 700 applications since 2016.
Dr Stephen Rundi went on to say that he agreed with Welfare, Community Well-being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister, Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah’s comment on the matter.
Dr Rundi argued that the ministry should have talked with the state authorities first before making its decision on the special committee.
“If we had been consulted, we would have given them our input on the significance of this matter to Sarawakians,” he said.
