KUCHING: The federal government has established a special task force (PPK) in addressing the problem of the indigenous people who are without personal identification document.
Minister of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women and Child Development Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said that the initiative is specifically for Sarawak only which gives the community leaders the power to confirm the identity of the applicants through statutory declaration under the Statutory Declaration Act 1960.
“PPK has been implemented in the State starting from 15 September 2015 by deploying the Special Mobile Unit (UKB) on the ground for this matter.
“As of April 2017, a total of 86 operations were conducted throughout the State,” said Fatimah in her winding-up speech during the 18th State Legislative Assembly held Thursday.
She also noted through the operation, a total of 4,867 applications were received with 3,406 of these having been approved and issued with identity documentations, while another 1,461 applications were rejected.
Meanwhile, she also said that another effort was made in order to overcome the problem of children without identification documents and citizenship.
According to Fatimah, her ministry has been coordinating and monitoring the concerted effort between the State National Registration Department (JPN) and State Education Department (JPNS).
“The result of this concerted collaboration has allowed them to enjoy the government aid such as poor students’ trust fund (KWAPM), minimum school and medicine fee, welfare and also access to education.
“As of August 2016, JPNS has forwarded a total of 1,297 names of students who do not have the information of citizenship status to JPN for review and verification,” she said.
Fatimah pointed out that as a result, a total of 687 (52.97%) of the students are citizens of Malaysia, 79 (6.09%) non-citizens and status for the other 96 students (7.40%) has not been determined.
“While the status of the 435 (33.54%) students is still in the process of obtaining the right additional information from the JPNS for further review,” she said.
